The Story of Ruby Brown
by DramaDramaDrama
Summary: In 2006, Amber Browns wins an all-expenses-paid trip to Volterra with her friend Phoebe. In 2014, her younger sister Ruby is a lonely girl with no friends still on the look-out for her sister, whose body was never found. So, she decides to do something that is both very foolish and very brave — she boards a plane to Italy and takes matters into her own hands.
1. Prologue

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does. I only own my original characters.

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><p><em>Note (February 2015)<em>: The entire story has just been fully re-edited. I hope I didn't accidentally delete someone's favorite part or something, but I really felt like there were a lot of flaws to the story and therefore changed rather a lot. The beginning scene, for instance. I haven't changed the major plot points, though, so no worries. Happy reading!

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

It was a last period on a Thursday, and the class' attention span had reached a new low.

While the history teacher, a conservative man in his mid-fifties by the name of Mr. Devinton, desperately tried to coax his students back into a quiet state, chaos was all around. Paper planes polluted the thick air, and some of the popular girls at the back of the room played on their smartphones, laughing artificially in an obnoxiously loud manner while their male counterparts turned their backs to the teacher, snickering loudly, a particularly trivial pop song playing in the background.

All in all, a day just like all its previous ones.

"Kids! Kids! Would you please listen just one last time-" the teacher began, but he was interrupted when Louïs, a tall, athletic boy with blond hair and strikingly empty eyes, threw a paper plane at him.

"Dude, I've got news for you: nobody cares!" he yelled across the room.

The two popular girls, Marlena and Alexis, exchanged their fake laughter for full-face grins. Laughter errupted from all sides of the classroom and I rested my head on the once white plastic table, staring out of the window in an attempt to tune out.

I hated them and their premature attitudes. I had had enough of it to last two lifetimes.

Mr Devinton, astonished as he was at Louïs' spontaneous outburst, quickly caught himself again and tried to somehow carry on with the lesson. Naturally, he was unsuccessful.

"Ever heard of living in the present?" Alexis demanded, a smirk on her lips. "Nobody gives a damn about what some dead people did ages ago. Except of _dead gir_l, maybe. Obviously. But seriously. All we care about right now are the holidays."

Yes. The holidays. Only one more day, and I could exchange this hell for my own, personal one.

Oh, joy.

I turned my gaze back to the classroom. Mr Devinton was shooting Alexis an incredulous look, but she did not seem to mind in the least. Quite contrarily, she seemed to be boasting with pride.

"Young lady, watch your language. And your attitude. Another outburst like this and I will send you to the principal's office. Same applies to you, Louïs."

"Wow, well aren't I afraid now. What are you gonna do about it? I'm just telling the truth, that's it, and you're umcomfortable with it."

Alexis and Louïs were giving Marlena approving nods.

Mr Devinton's answer came instantaneously. "Leave the room, you three."

"We'll see about that," Louïs replied smugly. "I don't know about the others, but I'm not moving a single inch."

"Yeah! You can't drag us into the corridor, can you?"

"No," the teacher said, "But I can call your parents."

"Boohoo, aren't I scared now," Marlena commented. "It's not our fault that your lessons suck."

"I...I-" Mr Devinton desperately searched for an answer, yet even after several seconds of intense thought, he found none. Instead he sighed sadly, obviously as tired of this as I was, hiding his face behind his hands in exertion.

Smug looks appeared on the three's faces as they saw the defensive position they had managed to put their superior into.

I don't know what it was — if it was the hopeless situation Mr Devinton was in, Alexis' so called 'argumentation' or simply that in that one moment in time, I could see myself in my teacher's pained expression; all I knew was that then, there was only one word on my mind:

Enough.

"Just go," I said, feeling completely invincible in this one invincible second. "I know it might be hard to understand, but some people actually care about history."

I froze after the words had left my lips, now irrevocably spoken, realizing what dangerous situation I had put myself in. I gulped as I saw Alexis', Louïs' and Marlena's heads slowly turn towards me in anger.

"Who do you think you are, bitch?" Alexis broke the silence. "You're dead."

Ironic, I thought to myself. According to the nickname you have chosen for me, I already am.

Just as I was about to give her some sarcastic reply, the gong went off, rendering the lesson finished. Marlena and her gang hastily packed their supplies into their bags, all of a sudden overly zealous to exit the room.

Someone really had to explain the concept of irony to them.

Everybody else hastily followed after them as they entered the corridor, running off into the freedom of a planned break. Like wolves following their alphas, I thought and a smiled emerged my lips at the fitting comparison. Just as I was about to leave, too, the voice of my history teacher called me back.

"Ruby, is it?" I turned around and nodded.

"Yeah," I replied awkwardly. "Ruby Jasmyne Brown."

"Thanks, Ruby" he told me. "I know how hard it is at your age to stand up against the popular kiddos."

"Don't worry about it." I said. "It's not like I've got a reputation to lose, anyway. I've just been the weird outsider girl here for as long as I can remember."

"I'm sorry 'bout that."

I rolled my eyes. "Why do people always say they are sorry? It's hardly your fault, is it?"

He shook his head.

"I don't mind, anyway. It's not like I'd want to be friends with Alexis or Marlena."

Mr Devinton nodded sympathetically. "Enjoy your holidays, Ruby."

"Thank you," I smiled.

I waited until I was certain I couldn't hear their voices in the corridors before I left, closing the door behind me.

**.oOXOo.**

I let out a sigh of relief as I reached my room without running into any of the three people that were currently ruining my life, and even better — without finding them within it.

I let myself fall onto my metal-frame boarding school bed, letting out a content sigh. God knew where they were at the moment, but once they were finished doing what they were doing, the real terror would begin.

At least for the moment I was still safe.

**.oOXOo.**

Let me tell you my story. It is not a happy one, but it is mine. The story of Ruby Brown. The story of a girl that is so isolated, odd and obsessed with what was unrightfully taken from her that she is commonly referred to as _dead girl._

I did not choose this name for myself. It was given to me. I detest it, both the name and its creator. But like all unfortunate things in my life, I did not have a say in it. This is how life is for me. I get dealt a bad deck of cards, and then I lay low so that it does not happen again.

But it never stops. It just keeps on happening and happening and happening, again and again and again.

Most recently at the start of this wretched school year. You see, by some twisted trick of fate, my home room teacher, Ms Witt, had assigned none other than the creator of my nickname herself, Marlena Canterbury, to share a room with me during the past school year. Why? I did not know to this day.

All I knew was that with that suggestion, Ms Witt had irreparably changed my life for the worse. Marlena, Alexis and Louïs had made it their goal for the year to terrorize my life as much as possible. And it didn't exactly make things better that I could not do a single thing, even in my own room, without Marlena's evil comments.

Oh, you think. So this is a bullying story. But no, my friend. _That_ is only the tip of the iceberg.

Because, have you stopped to ask yourself why I was even worthy of being their victim in the first place? What qualified me for that position?

It was more often than usually, lately, that I replayed the memory that had changed my entire life for the worse. It had taken place over eight years ago, now, but I still remembered every little detail, every little sound. As if it was burned permanently into my mind.

**.oOXOo.**

_I heard my sister take a deep breath. _What was that for?_, I wondered. _

_"Ruby, I..." she began, but she suddenly fell silent as there was a knocking sound in the background. _

_"Just a minute!" Amber yelled, her head turning away from the phone. I could barely hear her. "Now Ruby, I was going to say that-"_

_ But she did not come any further. There was a loud, sudden sound, comparable to that of a door being kicked open. Everything went very quickly from then._

_ "F-ck" she whispered, and I grinned, imagining how Mom would scould her if she heard this. _

_"Ruby, I love you" she said, a tone of the utmost desperation in her voice. The grin faded immediately. Then the phone flew through the air, and, from the sound, crashed into a wall. Hard. I backed away for a second. The sound hurt my ears. _

_It was then, and eventhough the phone was no longer next to my ear, that the horrified scream of my beloved sister sent me into a state of panic and fear. It was like my most shocking nightmare had come true; only much, much worse. My sister was screaming in terror and I could not help her. In a dream, I could at least wake up. But this — this was reality._

_ "No! No...! Amber!" I screamed into the phone, tears streaming down my face. "Amber!" _

_A few seconds after the screams had started, they died down. Did she...? No. It simply could not be. I heard the faint sound of a door opening, then closing in the background. I let out a sob. They're gone. She's gone._

_But I was mistaken. _

_A deep, husky-like voice pulled me from my thoughts._

_ "Your sister," it said with a sadistic tone to it, seemingly enjoying every word and the damage it was doing, "is as good as dead. Forget her. This conversation never happened."_

_ Then the line went dead and I was left on the floor, sobbing._

**.oOXOo.**

Okay, you think. So this is a bullying story _and_ I have a trauma from when I was a child. But sadly, that's still not quite it.

You see, when I had told my parents, they laughed at me. They thought I was telling them a story. I was in shock, devastated, frightened, freshly traumatized and so, so much more. But they did not buy it. I yelled at them, tears streaming down my face, insisting I had told the truth. But they did not believe me. And they did not until this day.

Here's why.

There had been no proof for my version of events. The unknown number that had called me had not been recorded by my phone. To Mom and Dad, this had only been proof that I had been lying. But I, I knew I had told the truth. It had just been too real, too vivid, too surprising for it to be a dream. Even if the evidence was against me.

No, I am not insane. No, I do not hear voices. Please believe me. Please hear me out, unlike everyone else. _Please_.

We had flown to Volterra the same day; the place were Amber had been scheduled to stay with her friend, Phoebe, who had been found murdered in the forest two days earlier, and the tour guide. Whoever it had been had obviously done a _miraculous_ job of taking care of the girls. When we arrived, the tour guide was missing and nobody claimed to have seen an Amber Brown. Even the receptionist at the only hotel of the little Italian village had told us she had never seen her.

We had returned home empty-handed and Amber had been declared missing. Even then, Mom and Dad thought that what I had told them was nothing more than an attempt to gain their attention.

Obviously, I had changed after it had happened. I felt like my own parents had betrayed me, and I had grown not to trust people easily. I told myself that people were just like Amber or my parents; eventually, they would either leave or misunderstand me.

Yes, to answer your unspoken question, I was an incredibly stubborn child.

As a result of this philosophy, I did not even bother to talk to anybody for several years. After all, all they would do was hurt me, not?

Eventually, my parents worried enough to send me to a psychiatrist.

I did not talk to her, either. _She_ had long, ginger curls and wore a pair of brown horn glasses. _She_ convinced my parents that I had schizoid personality disorder and was simply not programmed to socialize.

I knew better, but nobody believed my words anyway.

Often, when I had enough of her diagnosis and its consequences, I talked to Mom and Dad, insisting that there had been a call and that I wanted, no, _needed_ to talk to the police. Two years after the incident, they had enough of my begging and sent me to the police station. The chief had listened to my statement silently, nodding at intervals.

But when I had finished, he had asked the same question as my parents: _Are you sure that this is what really happened, Ruby?_

He did not believe me, either.

And this is where it gets complicated. Because one disagreement, however big it may be, can not possibly change a person's entire _life_ for the worse, can it?

Yes it can.

Because, let me tell you, it never stopped. It carried on for years and years on end, with no side even halfway willing to give in. I said there was a call, my parents said there wasn't. My parents said there was no evidence, I replied that that was irrelevant. Imagine this, day after day, like a big fat metaphorical elephant in the room, disturbing the peace.

Nobody _ever_ believed me.

Four years ago, at ten, my parents sent me away to the same boarding school they had sent my sister to— Southham Grammar School, a little boarding school a few kilometers south of London. The kids were fine, but I had not even tried to gain friends. All that mattered to me —now and then— was my sister, and what had happened to her.

In the summer holidays of my thirteenth year, I found Amber's diary in a drawer in her room. I took it to school with me in secret, knowing Mom would not approve. All these years, she has been quite the pessimist. The police has told us that we should not give up hope, that they were looking for her. After one year, though, Mom told us that Amber was most likely dead, and that we should get accustomed to the fact. Dad got accustomed to it just fine.

I never did.

Back at school, I read her diary and found how she was very like me, concerning her way of thinking and reacting to different situations. She was, too, logical, witty, but also shy and unpopular. And she had a friend — Phoebe Evans.

I never had a friend.

Over the lonely days I spent reading her diary, I told myself that she was my friend. Amber was simply so entirely alike me... and one day I would find her. She simply could not be dead.

And this is where, unfortunately, the different pieces of my story fall together, creating the irrevocable mess I live with to this day.

At that time, Alexis, Marlena and Louïs started bullying me because I was an outcast. At first, it was harmless and they, too, grew tired easily. I tried to ignore them — and at that time, I managed. Only that that peace did not last forever.

One day, volleyball practice was cancelled and Marlena and Alexis walked in on me. They took the journal from my hands, flipped through the pages and immediately recognized it for what it was; my dead sister's diary.

From that moment on, I was not known as Ruby anymore. I was now known as _the dead girl_, for talking to somebody who was probably already dead for all my classmates knew. For convenience, they shortened _the dead girl_ to _dead girl_, or simply _DG_.

And this is the story of how, slowly yet inevitably, I grew to live up to my nickname.

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><p><em>Read and Review.<em>


	2. Dead Girl

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does. I own nothing but my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1 - Dead Girl<strong>

_June 27th, 2006_

_Dear Diary-_

_today is my birthday. No-one has congratulated me. _

_ I don't know what I expected, really. All the kids here either despise or ignore me, and none of the teachers are organised enough to think of that sort of thing. Of course, Mom and Dad gave me a call. And Ruby sent me a bracelet she bought for me. But they don't count, do they? They are my family, they congratulate me because they _have _to. _

_I want somebody who does that without having to. I want somebody that gives me a present and hugs me and says 'Happy Birthday! I'm happy you're alive!'_

_Why can't they just like me...? What about me could possibly drive others away? Am I ugly, so incredibly ugly that they cannot stand to be near me? Am I so unloyal that they don't even feign to like me? Am I arrogant? No, I can't be. I'm not like that. I just know._

_I try my very best to fit in, and they keep on acting as if I am vermin._

_Good god, this may be the most pathetic entry yet._

_I need to go now. I have choir in half an hour and I still need to call Phoebe. She hasn't called me yet - has even she forgotten me?_

_ A._

**.oOXOo.**

_June 28th, 2006_

_Dear Diary-_

_Phoebe sung me 'Happy Birthday' over the telephone. It was amazing. Well, not her singing; at best, it was mediocre. What was amazing was that she _tried_. _

_During choir, Elody spilled her tea all over my uniform. By 'accident', of course. Thank whatever higher power there is that it was cold._

_On a happier note, English class was actually bearable today. We read a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. It reminded me oddly of myself._

From childhood's hour I have not been

As others were; I have not seen

As others saw; I could not bring

My passions from a common spring.

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow; I could not awaken

My heart to joy at the same tone;

And all I loved, I loved alone.

_If not for the creepy demon part at the end, I'd say he'd captured me perfectly. _

Then- in my childhood, in the dawn

Of a most stormy life- was drawn

From every depth of good and ill

The mystery which binds me still:

From the torrent, or the fountain,

From the red cliff of the mountain,

From the sun that round me rolled

In its autumn tint of gold,

From the lightning in the sky

As it passed me flying by,

From the thunder and the storm,

And the cloud that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view.

_Demons. Isn't that a cheap way to end a poem? Just mention something supernatural, give your rhymes a touch of mystery, and your audience will surely applaud you._

_Of course, if, by chance, I should ever find myself with a demon in my view in the autumn sun, I guess I do owe Edgar Allen Poe an apology._

_Not that I am counting on it, to be honest._

_A._

**.oOXOo.**

A wave of cold sped down my back, just like it did every time I read that entry. There was no reason. At least, no logical one. It was merely the feeling that, while in Italy, the demon had indeed caught up with her.

_Don't be ridiculous_, my rational side sneered. _There is no such thing as demons._

The feeling however would not vanish.

I was unexpectedly pulled from my thoughts when I heard the door open. I panicked— this could mean one thing, and one thing only: the devil had returned.

I quickly hid Amber's diary under the covers of my bed, well aware that Marlena would use every opportunity she could find to torment me, especially if it was to do with my sister. I then grabbed a magazine from my nightstand, opened it up to a random page and pretended to be reading.

"Well, well, well, if that isn't _dead girl_ herself" Alexis said, and I heard Marlena laugh next to her.

I looked up. Marlena's head was shaking while she was laughing, and her long brunette curls were moving along with the movement, wave-like. I sighed, trying to think of some kind reply to give them. I chose the polite way.

"Hi, Alexis. Hi, Marlena."

"Hi, _dead girl_" Marlena said, and this time both of them laughed. It hurt my ears, this high-pitched, girlish, totally and utterly fake laugh they shared.

"Can I help you somehow...?" I trailed off, hoping to finish the conversation as quickly as possible. "Because otherwise, I'd like to get on with my reading."

"Oh, of course" Alexis said. "You'd like to continue reading. Can we get you some coffee, professor?" They laughed again, and I did my very best to ignore it.

I picked up the magazine from my lap and analyzed its contents. As I found out, it was a copy of _Psychology Today_. Perfect. The perfect magazine to be made fun of.

"No thank you" I said, eventhough the question clearly had been rhetorical. They shot me an incredulous look before Marlena finally broke the awkward silence that followed.

"Anyway" she said. "Alexis and I need to get our stuff for volleyball practice. Just continue reading your pathetic little magazine if you're oh-so-desperate to avoid our company, professor."

I nodded. "Thank you" I said quietly, glad they had found a nickname a little more nice-sounding than _dead girl_ for me.

Truth be told, I wasn't very interested in psychology, and the magazine had only found its way onto my nightstand because I had considered taking the subject as an extracurricular a few months ago. But now, the magazine was my key to get out of this situation fairly unharmed. So I guessed I should play my part.

Dutifully, I cast my eyes onto the page, feigning interest.

"So did you notice how desperate Devinton was in class today?" Alexis said as they walked over to Marlena's closet, which had the green-greyish color of asparagus and was littered from top to bottom with pictures she had cut out from magazines.

"Yes!" Marlena exclaimed. "He just keeps getting more and more pathetic!"

_Ignore them, Ruby. Don't let your cover be blown._

"... the way he just yelled at us, all like Please, kids! Let's get on with the lesson now!" Marlena laughed at that, again, and I wondered why. Alexis' imitation had been terrible.

"I know, right? But you know what was even more pathetic?"

_Eyes on the page, Ruby._

Oh, there it was. The reason why my parents assumed I was some kind of a born-to-be outsider.

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><p><em>"I have reason to believe that your daughter has schizoid personality disorder." the psychologist said, a calm and soothing tone to her voice, the kind of tone police officers use on TV when informing the relatives of a victim that said victim was dead.<em>

_"And what does that mean?" Mom asked. _

_"Schizoid personality disorder, bluntly explained, occurs when people have asocial tendencies. For instance, their expressions sometimes lack emotions, and they typically are loners. They tend to prefer their own company to that of others, too."_

_The psychologist took off her brown horn reading glasses, shooting Mom an apologetic look, as if saying, _Don't shoot the messenger, Ms Brown, it's not my fault your daughter is a psycho.

_ "And... and why do you think that Ruby has this disorder?" Mom asked. _

_"Well, Mrs. Brown, I have noticed that Ruby tends to talk very seldomnly, if at all. Also, people with this disorder often have schizophrenia, too." She explained. "Which would explain why Ruby heard her sister eventhough there was no real call." _

_"There _was_ a real call," I whispered. "_Please_ believe me. I'm not insane."_

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><p>Quite obviously though, both my mother and the psychologist had paid no mind to my request. And from that day on, I was not only officialy asocial, but I also apparently heard the voice of my dead sister in my head.<p>

But Amber was not dead.

And I most certainly did not hear voices.

Why was that so inexplicably hard for others to understand?

Marlena and Alexis had reached the closet by now.

"Hm, something even more pathetic than Devinton? Tough call. Wait. How about..." Alexis turned around to face me, an evil smile forming on her lips. "..._dead girl_?"

_Don't listen to her, Ruby. Don't give her the satisfaction._

"Yep," Marlena confirmed. "That was _exactly_ what I was thinking. Remember that performance? _I know it might be hard to understand, but some people actually care about history._ Wow, a nerd. I'm so scared."

_I told you, Ruby. Don't listen to her!_

"Just go!" Alexis mimicked me, deliberately making her voice sound sick and ugly. I flinched.

"Yeah," Marlena laughed. "How about _dead girl_ 'just goes_'_ and f-cks herself?"

I looked away.

"But of course _DG_ cares about shitty history. It's obvious, isn't it?" Alexis said, a vicious look in her eyes.

_Please just crawl into a pit in the ground and die._

"Dead people take interest in what other dead people did. Simple as that, right?"

I closed my eyes, trying to hide the single tear that rolled down my cheeks.

Marlena grinned. "Shame she can't just accept what she is. It would be just so much easier to talk to her dead sister then, would it not be?"

A moment of silence.

"Stop it!" I yelled, throwing the magazine away from me, blowing my cover. To my never ending surprise and happiness, it landed straight in Marlena Canterbury's face.

"What the f-ck is your problem?" She screamed at me, and I could see the fury in her eyes. "I'll have to re-do my hair now!"

I did not comment on the situation any further. In fact, I did not do anything. I just looked at Marlena, then at Alexis, then towards the door.

And then I ran. I ran, and ran, and ran.

I did not care where I was going, as long as it was away from them. I wanted one thing and one thing only — for them to never find me. Left, right, left. The corridors turned into random directions, and I followed them. Even when I lost track of where I actually was, I kept running, ignoring the agonizing pain in my chest.

I continued until I could not ignore it any longer.

I turned around to see if they had followed me. To my relief, they were nowhere to be seen —or heard. I let out a breath I had not noticed I was holding and walked away, feeling like a criminal who had outrun the police.

With a loud _boom!_ kind-of sound, I ran into some kind of obstacle. _Oh no_, I thought. _Oh no, please, no..._

"What the f-ck was that?" I heard an all-too-familiar voice ask and instantly wished I had just stayed in the room with Marlena and Alexis.

Louïs.

He slowly turned around, grinning wickedly when he recognized me. "Why, hello there, _DG_."

"H-hello L-Louïs" I stuttered.

"Tell me, ugly, did you just run the hell into me?"

I did not answer.

He waited a few seconds. Then suddenly, and without warning, his fist hit my face. Hard. Me being me, Ruby, who, above all her other problems and issues, had a ridiculously low pain threshold, I instantly fell to the stone floor of the corridor, crying out loud. Louïs being, well, Louïs, a stupid prick, merely laughed and repeated his question.

"I said, did you just run into me, _DG_?"

I tentatively nodded.

"Pathetic." He shook his head. "I knew you were ugly, stupid _and_ slow, _dead girl_, but I'd never have guessed that body control was another item on the list of _Things DG Sucks At._"

What was I to answer to that?

"Do us all a favor, _dead girl_" he continued. "Keep your sis some company." Louïs turned away from me. Hallelujah for that!

"Kill yourself. You'd do everybody a major favor, including yourself, _dead girl_."

Before I had the chance to reply, he was gone, and I was left behind on the cold stone floor in an area of the school I had no orientation around, crying my eyes out.

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><p><em>Read and Review.<em>


	3. Transition

**Disclaimer**: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, not to me. If I'd written it, there wouldn't have been as many plot holes. I merely own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 2 — Transition<strong>

I suffered silently for the rest of the weekend and let them have their way with me, knowing that the school year, and therefore my time with them, would be over on Monday. Time had passed slowly, and Marlena and her gang had treated me just like always (and maybe even worse, as their days with me had been numbered).

But today, after fourty-eight hours, my time had come. It was Monday, the 25th of July 2014, and today was the last day of school.

Well, maybe 'school' was the wrong term. Today, until now at least, had been more of a _breakfast-then-assembly-during-which-principal-Jeven-tells-us-how-great-this-year-has-been-and-back-at-homeroom-everyone-is-going-to-miss-everyone-oh-so-very-much_ kind of day. And I seriously doubted that we would have at least one more normal lesson today. After all, it was the last day of school, it was 11:27 AM and the year would be over in three minutes.

Finally.

Our homeroom teacher, lacking ideas, asked us to recall the most outstanding events of the last school year. Slowly yet inevitably, the atmosphere turned from productive to positively evil.

Despite the teacher's fervent warnings and interruptions to his statements, Louïs had obviously made it his objective for the day to torment me as much as humanely possible. Or at least, until the summer holidays separated us.

"Nobody likes you, DG," he laughed, and the class laughed with him.

"You must have been an accident," he said. "Go and jump off a cliff."

I tuned out sometime after him telling me that my sister must have run away from me. I did however catch his final sentence.

"Get lost over the holidays and never come back."

I merely smiled in reply. The bell went off, and with it came my momentary freedom. True, I was merely transitioning from one hell to another, but at least I had this period of transition. And I was thankful for it.

I continued smiling, only stopping when I sat down on my spot in the train to London half an hour later. Louïs had long gone, but his comments were eating me up from the inside and I was unreasonably afraid that if I stopped smiling, he would have my outside, too.

**.oOXOo.**

As the black cab pulled into the driveway of the Brown Mansion, I saw my mother waiting outside for me, waving at the car with great zeal. _Where is Dad?_ I wondered, but quickly dismissed the thought. _He's probably still at work_.

I payed the driver, got my suitcase from the back of the cab and walked towards Mom with an, admittedly, forced smile. How could you smile honestly at the woman that had raised you yet still did not believe the very important truth you had been telling her for over eight years?

"Ruby," she greeted me. "It's nice to see you again."

I did not answer, still fighting the cold war that had commenced between the two of us the second she had not believed that the call had taken place. Mom waited for my reply just a few seconds longer, then remembered that I almost never talked to her, and pulled me into a hug.

"Oh, how long has it been now? Seven long months, sweetheart." Mom produced a small gift from her purse. It was the size of a small book - and that was probably exactly what it was.

"This is for you, Ruby. I..." She gulped. "I saw it in the store the other day and thought of you."

I took the gift from her and examined the packaging — which was, strangely, completely black. _How festive._

"Let's go inside, shall we?" Mom hinted and I nodded.

As she took my hand and I thought of an excuse to break free from her grasp, we walked through our front yard until we reached the white entrance door to the house — no, it was to big to be a house; to the villa. I looked up. It was build in the thirties, had three stories, white windows and brown brick walls. I had never liked it. It was just so... _pompous_. The kind of villa the people that haunted my sleep would murder to live in.

Mom opened the door and we entered. Everything was just like it had been when I had left seven months ago: the floor was polished mahogany wood, the furniture a perfect shade of white with vintage elements. To the right, there was the kitchen; to the left, the living room; and straight ahead, the white staircase which led up to the first floor.

Several fake pictures of a happy family in pastel-colored picture frames littered the walls; Mom, Dad and me on my first day of school. Mom, Dad and me in Corsica. Mom, Dad and me on Mom and Dad's twentieth wedding anniversary. Mom, Dad and me on my fourteenth birthday. There was literally at least one picture of every vacation we had ever been on — all except one.

Volterra, Italy, July 2006. Mom, Dad and I had flown there to pick my sister up, and eventhough I had told my parents of the call I had gotten, they had not listened to me and did not even pay the town's police office a visit when they arrived. They had simply inquired where she was, received the answer that she had never been to Volterra and gone back home.

_She _of course being my sister Amber, who was not on a single one of these twenty or-so photographs.

I understood that Mom and Dad did not wanted to be reminded of the fact that she was missing twenty-four hours a day, but... they could have put up just _one_ picture to remind them that she still was their daughter and, more importantly, existed, couldn't they?

Mom directed me to go into the living room and make myself comfortable. I sat myself on the large cream couch and waited silently for her to come in with self-made cookies that, as usual, nobody would even touch. It was like an unofficial law.

As if on cue, just then Mom came in with the cookies, who were chocolate chip, on a silver tablet. After she positioned them carefully on the middle of the white couch table, she took a seat on the couch, directly next to me. I felt a little uncomfortable when she layed her arms around me and gave me a kiss on the forehead.

"So tell me, Ruby, how were the last seven months for you?"

I stared out of the window and stayed silent. _Don't say anything. She'll only misunderstand you, as usual._

Mom sighed. "Did you make any friends at school?"

There was a feline cat with beautiful, short grey fur sitting outside on our patio. I watched in awe as it stared directly at me for a few seconds with a gaze that said _I know how you feel_, and I wondered if I truly had just made a friend. Then, all of a sudden, my potential friend ran away and jumped over the fence into the Hutcherson's garden.

"Look" I said. "The Hutchersons have a new cat."

Mom gave me one of her _Ruby, please!_ glares and changed the topic. "Can I see your report card?"

I nodded and ran into the hall to get it from my rucksack. As I was about to zip the rucksack open, my gaze landed on a picture of me when I was a little child behind a large yellow pictureframe with a photo of Mom and Dad inside that was standing on a small, white armoire.

I had never seen it before.

I put the photo of Mom and Dad on the floor and examined the new picture closely, taking it into my hands. On it, there was a little Ruby of maybe four years, lying in her bed, laughing. All in all, exactly the kind of picture parents liked to keep standing around. I was about to go back to my mother when I saw who was singing me to sleep.

Amber.

Or at least I thought it was her. It was hard to say with the person's face literally cut out of the picture.

Tears pooled in my eyes as I repeated the same question over and over in my mind: _How could she do this?_

_How could she just go and cut her own flesh and blood out of pictures?_

"Ruby?" my mother's voice called from the living room. "Are you alright?"

I did not answer and instead opened my rucksack, taking the white envelope out and putting the picture in. I then wiped the tears from my eyes and entered the living room, where Mom was waiting for me.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice concerned. I did not answer, and without a word she took the envelope from my hands and ripped it open. As she pulled the piece of paper out, scanning it, her eyes went blank.

She then looked up at me, obviously disappointed.

"What happened?" she repeated, but this time it was not about my well-being.

I wondered briefly if she hated herself for how she reacted to Amber's absence as much as I did, and the picture of me and my sister came to my mind again. I wanted to scream at her, make her show regret for her reaction, but instead I decided to continue playing my little psychological game with her and simply not answer any of her questions.

As I had long ago decided, my mother was not worthy of being spoken to.

"Ruby" she said and looked me straight in the eyes. "Amber has been missing for eight years now. Why can't you just accept that she is dead? Why must you ruin your life like this?"

_Tune out, Ruby, don't listen. Tune her out like you tuned out all these others._

"Ruby, your sister _was_ a great person. She would have never wanted you to behave like this and obsess over her disappearance."

"Yes" I replied. "You are right."

She shot me a relieved smile, sighing. "Oh, thank God. I thought you'd never understand."

"...you are right, Amber _is_ a great person" I continued, emphasizing the 'is'.

"But she is not dead. And you— you are a lousy excuse of a mother. First you accept your daughter's death, just like that, as if it was a piece of cake, without any confirmation that she is actually _not_ alive, and then you blame your second daughter for believing that she _is_ alive..."

"Ruby, darling—"

"...but no, that isn't everything! It oh-so-happens that that second daughter received a call from that first daughter with important information that you just ignore because you don't like it! Well guess what?! The bloody call _did_ happen, and Amber is alive. I can feel it. And _you_ tell me _I_ have a personality disorder and send me to a therapist and fricken wonder why I don't want to talk to you or can't concentrate in school!"

Mom's jaw dropped.

Not looking back, I ran out of the living room and up the staircase, to my room. Or anywhere, in that matter. As long as I was not going to be in the same room as her.

**.oOXOo.**

It was exactly 11 PM and I was lying under the covers of my bed, staring out into the night and listening to music on my cellphone. I could not sleep. Maybe, I thought, I should just stay awake.

Mom had left me alone after I had yelled at her; thank God for that. I couldn't stand her presence anymore, everything about the woman made me want to scream.

I sighed as the last seconds of a song played and erased all thoughts from my mind, entirely focusing on the new music that would begin to play shortly.

_Who knows how long  
>I've been awake now?<br>The shadows on my wall don't sleep  
>They keep calling me, beckoning<em>

_Who knows what's right?  
>The lines keep getting thinner<br>My age has never made we wise  
>But I keep pushing on and on and on and on<em>

_There's nothing left to say now  
>There's nothing left to say now<br>I'm giving up, giving up, giving up now  
>I'm giving up, giving up, giving up now<em>

Giving up? Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea. Maybe Louïs had been right. Maybe I really would do everyone, including me, a massive favor. After all, what was I living for? No friends. No hobbies. Not even a loving family.

Maybe I really _should_ end it all.

There was a knock on the door and I put off my headphones, turning around. It was Mom.

"Can I come in?" she asked, and I merely nodded. She entered and sat herself next to me on the bed. As a response, I turned back into the direction of the window, showing her my back, hoping she would get the message.

She did not.

"Look, _sweetheart_-"

"I'm not your sweetheart." I hissed.

Mom sighed. "Fine. Ruby, I know you hate me, but we need to talk and I need you to listen to everything I tell you, okay?"

"Okay."

"Well... I'm sure you're asking yourself where your Dad is. Or do you hate him, too?"

"_Dad_ didn't send me to a therapist."

She sighed. "I only did that because-"

"Just get back to the point, please. Spare us this pointless argument we have had so often before."

"Okay." she agreed. "Well, I wanted to say that... ever since your sister has been missing, things between me and your father haven't been working out as well as before. And now, what with your disorder and his pay cuts... we have decided that it would be best to... _divorce_."

I turned around, and saw her looking at me expectantly. "So?" I demanded, shrugging.

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "Aren't you... shocked? Or even surprised?"

I shook my head. "You know, it's not like I wasn't expecting it. It was pretty obvious."

She took a deep breath. "..._okay," _she finally concluded.

"Eventhough," I started. "I would really like to know what you mean with 'what with your disorder'."

"Erm... isn't that kind of self-explanatory? Come on, Ruby. It's not a secret that at times, you're quite hard to handle. Because of your disorder, of course."

I shook my head, again. "No. I don't have a disorder. The call happened, for the twenty billionth time, and I just don't want to talk to you. End of story."

Awkward silence.

_God, how I hated those._

"Ruby, let me tell you something. Regardless if your sister is dead or not, _she is gone_. You, on the other hand, are here. Please, let's just not act like I'm the devil to you. You know, I love you. And it hurts me to see you this...broken."

She sighed. "Look, forget about Amber. Live _your_ life while you can. Have fun. Spend some time with your old Mom. Or your Dad, if you'd like. So, what about it?"

_Well, I could give her one chance... just this once..._

"Fine" I agreed reluctantly, and we hugged each other, smiling.

"I'm so happy you're seing sense, Ruby" she told me. "And about Amber... just do it like me. Don't think about it too much. We both know she is most likely dead, no matter how hard you try to deny it, and the fact that she was declared dead-"

"WHAT?" I exclaimed, frozen in disbelief.

No. This could not be happening. She was alive. _Amber. Was. Alive. _I just knew.

"Oh. Did I not tell you? She was declared dead three months ago... or was it four? I think four..."

"You _bloody hell_ did not!" I yelled at her, annoyed at my sudden mood change. "How could you not tell me? She can't be dead! Amber is not dead! Why did you do nothing against this? And _why didn't you call me_?!"

"Ruby, I-" she started.

"No!" I cried. "I don't want to hear your pathetic excuses! First you're all _happy-family_, and then you, just like that, tell me my sister has been declared dead? What the heck is wrong with you?!"

"I-"

"Leave."

Mom nodded sadly, gave me another kiss and left, closing the door behind her.

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	4. Rising Tide

_Disclaimer_: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight, I don't. It's that simple. I do, however, own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 3 — Rising Tide<strong>

I stayed up all night, listening to the music on my iPod, rivers of tears streaming down my face as I looked at the newfound picture of little me in bed and read in Amber's diary for consolation. How could Mom have been so cold-hearted? It was a mystery me, just like why she'd cut her daughter's head out of the picture. How could she have been so _I love you, Ruby_ in one second and then all _Let's stab Ruby with thousands of knives from behind_ the next?

I sighed. Only hours at home, and I'd already been dealt another bad deck. This holiday was off to a _great_ start, wasn't it?

But then again, this was different. For the first time, a bad thing had been at least partially _my_ fault. After all, I had given her a chance, against my own philosophy, and by doing that I had made myself vulnerable. Of course though, in no way had my decision to give Mom a chance caused Amber's... degradation.

My sister was _not_ dead, she simply could not be. It was as simple as that.

I knew it seemed childish of me, but it _could_ not be any different. I still remembered how we had played together in the garden, laughing, even if it had been over eight years ago. I still heard her scream from the other end of the line. And sometimes, at night, it was as if she was watching me sleep and singing me a lullaby, like she used to. Once, she had even sung her favorite song for me. I still heard her voice in my head.

_Take my hand and lead the way  
>Out of the darkness and into the light of the day<br>And take me somewhere I'll be safe  
>And carry my lifeless body away from the pain<em>

_Cause I know what I've been missing  
>And I know that I should try<br>But there's hope in this admission  
>And there's freedom in your eyes<br>And we cry away_

Ironic, really. The soon-to-be missing girl singing her little sister to sleep with what will be the biggest dream in her life — finding her. Helping her. If only I would have known what would await her in Italy... I could have saved her. But it was too late for that now, I thought and drifted off into slumber.

I was awoken by the sound of raindrops pattering on the window, and looked outside. It was raining heavily, and the sky was filled with dark gray clouds. I smiled as I saw Mom, soaking wet, running around in the garden, trying to save the magazines and books she had left there yesterday from the water, but in vain.

Normally, I hated rain. After all, what did it do? It made you feel sad, that's what. And I was sad enough already. But today... today pathetic fallacy was on my side.

I stood up and got dressed. I knew Mom liked white or pastel colored girlish outfits, so I decided on a black armless hoody, old blue jeans and chucks.

Maybe this time she would get the message.

Adjusting my hair into a ponytail, I made my way down the stairs and into the kitchen. As I poured some milk onto my cereals, I watched Mom swearing in the garden. The ink was starting to drip off the pages of the books in her arms as she slipped and landed face-down in the mud. I continued eating my cereals as if nothing had happened.

The kitchen door opened, and in came Mom, covered in mud and soaking wet. "Could you please get me a towel?" she asked.

I remained seated.

Mom stared at me expactantly for a little while longer, then she turned around and headed for the bathroom. She came back two minutes later, when I was just putting the bowl into the dish washer. Her short hair was still greasy from the mud, and she was wearing a new set of clean, white clothing. I was about to head back to my room when she stopped me.

"Ruby" she begged. "Can we at least talk about this?"

I sighed. "What is there to talk about?"

"Well... look Ruby, I know you think that I'm the impersonation of the devil or something. But I want you to know that I love you and want only the best for you. Please just _try_ to understand that."

"That's exactly what you told me yesterday."

"So?"

"Gets a little repetitive over time. I mean, you even used the same devil analogy. Just saying."

She sighed. "Well, maybe it is. It's still true and I wish you understood."

"Well, maybe I don't _want_ to understand." I argued.

"Ruby... just imagine this from my perspective. All I want is the best for you."

"And the best for me is if you keep the fact that my sister was declared dead from me?" I demanded. She shook her head.

"I told you, I did not keep it from you, I just forgot."

I shook my head. "I couldn't care less about why you didn't tell me, Mom. You didn't, that's what matters in the end."

"You know, to me it seems like you don't even _try_ to understand me." She said accusingly.

"That's because I'm not." I admitted. "Why would I want to understand a woman that has been misunderstanding her own daughter for eight years now?"

Mom burst out laughing. "Excuse me? I do not misunderstand you!"

"No, of course not!" I told her, a sarcastic tone in my voice. "You sent me to a therapist to find out '_what is wrong with me_' because you understand me so well!"

"That... that was just once." She defended herself. "Besides, the diagnosis must be right. You talk much more since you're taking your pills."

"Who's telling you I'm taking them?"

She gasped. "You're..._not_?"

"No" I repeated. "I bloody hell am not. Never have, never will."

She shook her head in disbelief. "You're handicapping yourself! Why would you do this to yourself?"

"Why would _you_ not even once in eight years consider that your second daughter has been telling the truth about that call if you understand her so well?"

Silence.

_Good_, I thought. _I've finally hit a nerve_.

She took a deep breath. "You know, Ruby, how about you spend the rest of the holidays at your dad's new home in Exeter? I can already tell we're not going to get along."

"Do you want to get rid off me?"

"I told you" she replied. "I want what is best for you."

_Anything to get away from you_. "Yes. Yes, I'll go."

**.oOXOo.**

"_Last call for the train from London to Exeter_" a high-pitched, female voice announced over the loudspeakers, and Mom wrapped her arms around me, pulling me closer to her. An annoyed sound escaped my lips, and she immediately pulled away from me.

"Sorry. Guess I thought you'd like to hug your Mom one last time..." she trailed off.

"I'll need to get going now." I told her. She nodded.

"I love you" she said, kissing my left cheek.

"No" I shook my head. "I'm a disappointment to you, and both of us know that. You like me just as much as I like you."

"No! You're wrong. I love you just as much as I love your Dad and Amber. You're my special little girl, Ruby, and you'll always be."

"You love me as much as Dad and Amber?" I asked. She nodded. "You don't love Dad, now, do you? You just got a divorce, remember?"

"I love you, and I love your dad and sister." She repeated, but she sounded like she was struggling to make herself believe it. I grabbed my rucksack from Mom's hands and, without a word, pulled out the picture of me and my headless sister.

"You got a divorce from Dad, and you go around cutting my sister's head out of pictures. Now look me in the eyes and tell me you love them and that you love me as much as them." I ordered, her face freezing in recognizion as she saw the photo.

She stared blankly at me, and stayed silent. I took a deep breath.

"I knew it." I put the image back into the blue rucksack, grabbed the rucksack, turned around and walked away from my mother and towards the train without looking back. I heard a faint cry as I entered;

_"Open your present!"_

I was not sure if I was actually hearing it or just imagining it. And if I was hearing it, who told me it was my mother?

No. I was definetely imagining it.

**.oOXOo.**

_"Ruby!" he exclaimed as he embraced me, passengers entering and exiting the train behind us. "It's so good to see you again!"_

_"Erm... Hi, Dad" I replied shyly, not really sure what to answer. "So... how is life going without Mom?"_

_"Oh, it's fine, really. I have a lot more time for work on my hands now, so I got promoted. Which isn't too bad, is it?"_

_I chuckled. "Always the optimist."_

_"Of course" he said, letting me go of his grasp. "After all, life is bad enough already, isn't it? It's one of those things you have to learn in your teenage years, Ruby — optimism. You'll never survive the real world otherwise."_

_"Dad, I am living in the real world."_

_"Or so you think."_

_I sighed. "So how long can I stay with you? Mom is driving me crazy."_

_"Hmm... I'm officially taking my holiday time for this, cherry, so maybe not too long. A week or so, maybe. How about two? To have a little father-daughter time?"_

_"That would be more than perfect, Dad." I smiled._

_"Let's go to your temporary home, then." He suggested, and I nodded enthusiastically. "I'm sure you'll love it. It's the exact opposite of your mother's house."_

That had been three days ago, and, looking back, Dad couldn't have been more wrong. Well, not about the house. It was far from pompous, two stories, had light brown, wooden floors and dark, mostly leather furniture - all in all, the kind of house one yearned to be in after spending a day or more at the perfect, spotless house that Mom called home.

But apart from the house, the part with the holidays; it was simply not true. What had I imagined? Going around town with him, visiting museums, going to the movies? We did none of that. Every single day, I would hardly see him, so often did he lock himself up in his study, leaving me to entertain myself. He would fill out paper work, make powerpoints or call people; whatever it was, I had approximately half an hour with him each day — and those were the meals.

I supposed I was happy. Just the fact that I wasn't with Mom made a smile form on my lips. Dad was different from her. He had, at a time, at least partially believed that there had been a call, and he, contrarily to Mom, had been completely against sending me to a psychologist.

And I still loved him for it.

I spent most of my time reading, drawing or listening to music, mostly because Dad had no TV. Sometimes, I would go out into the little garden at night, staring at the stars and wondering if, wherever my sister was, she saw them, too. If she was thinking about me, too. If, maybe, as much as I dreaded the thought, my hope was for naught and she really was dead.

Early in the morning, then, I would go into town and get fresh bread from a nearby bakery. I would stare at the people, wondering if one day, they would be another Amber or another Ruby. Upon arrival back at home, I would read in Amber's diary again, eventhough, by now, I knew it by heart, and when I was finished, I would cook dinner.

In the meantime, I would, as previously mentioned, draw or read.

Today was the third day since I had set foot here in Exeter and I was rather enjoying my stay. True, Dad was working twenty-four seven. But what was the problem? I was glad to be finally left alone.

"Yes. Yes of course I understand that."

I was lying on one of Dad's oriental rugs in the living room, drawing a picture of the Hutcherson's cat from memory when I heard Dad talking into his business cellphone. Normally, he only took calls in his study. Curious what the matter was, and, more importantly, desperate for some entertainment, I tuned into Dad's conversation, still adding small details to the image every once in a while in order to not spark suspicion.

"What do you mean they have a new head of human resources?" He asked, his voice obviously annoyed. "Look, my daughter is here for a few days, I can't just-"

_Was he going to head back to the office?_

"I don't care if Andrea thinks that I'm just having a hangover... wait, what?"

_Yeah, what?_, I thought, coloring out the inside of the left eye.

He sighed. "Alright, alright. I get it. I'll be there in an hour." He hung up and stared over to me. Immediately, I pretended to be fully enveloped in my drawing. Dad walked up to me slowly, giving me a pat on the back as he reached me.

"Sorry, Ruby, but there's an emergency at the office. I need to be in a meeting ASAP and I have a feeling it's going to be a very long one at that."

I nodded. "Fine. I can take care of myself here for a few hours."

"I think you don't understand" he said. "I promised your Mom to not leave you alone over long periods of time. I'll have to send you back to London."

I closed my eyes in denial as the full meaning of his words hit me - I would have to return to London. To Mom.

_No! Please! Everything, but not this..._

"No!" I yelled at him. "You can't do this to me! She completely misunderstands me!"

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I have to. Now go, quick, and pack your stuff. I believe you have a plane to catch and I have a meeting to attend."

**.oOXOo.**

The entire ride to the airport had been silent, and Dad had continuosly driven at least twenty miles quicker than the speed limit. I could see the sorrow in his eyes as we parked infront of a large building labeled 'Terminal A', and he gave me a hug.

"Sorry, Ruby. I guess I'm the lousiest Dad ever."

"No, it's fine." I sighed. "I guess shit just happens."

He nodded in agreement and produced a small white envelope from behind his parka on the backseat. "This" he explained, handing it to me. "Is 400 bucks in cash. Keep the rest. Oh, and there's also a form of agreement inside. You know, what with unaccompanied under-age."

"You're not coming inside?" I asked. He shook his head.

"_Tempus fugit_." He replied simply.

"Do I have to call Mom to tell her I'm coming?"

No, I guess I can do that for you."

I took a deep breath. "Okay." I gave him a kiss on the cheek and, grabbing my rucksack, made my way out of the silver Mercedes. I was about to enter the terminal when he called me back.

"Oh, and Ruby!"

"Yes?"

"Please, I'm trusting you not to do anything reckless. For the love of God, get yourself a ticket to London and fly home. Understand?" His tone was concerned.

I nodded in reply and watched him release a breath I didn't realize he had been holding. Then, waving him goodbye, I made my way into the airport.

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	5. Recklessness

_Disclaimer_: Stephenie Meyer is the rightful owner of Twilight, not me. I own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 4 — Recklessness<strong>

Just as I had expected, the terminal was buzzing with life. Everywhere I looked, wherever I turned my head, the noise of a few hundred tourists conversing with each other while waiting more or less patiently in line was all around me. I sighed, realizing that my only way out of this situation, except of leaving the airport, was to take my place behind them and wait my turn.

Infront of me, making enough noise for ten, was a young family of four; gray-eyed, fair-haired parents with and a similar looking girl and boy, eight years tops. Despite their parents' constant threats, the two did not seem to ever be able to quiet down. Thinking it would be wiser to save my energy for tuning other passengers out while trying to get some sleep on the plane, and not having any source of entertainment except of my iPhone, which was low on charge, with me, I listened in on their conversation.

"Where are we going again, Liz?" The little boy asked.

She sighed. "Some tour to Italy Mommy and Daddy won."

_Italy? _I thought. _Now, there's a thought._ If _only I didn't have to be in London in a few hours..._

"Eliza, Martin," their mother turned around and scolded them. "Please be a little quieter. People are starting to turn around."

Both of them synchronically rolled their eyes. "Why are we leaving the UK anyway? I thought we were staying here for three weeks, not two?" Eliza asked.

"I told you" the young mother said. "We won a tour around Italy on the radio. You'll love it, I promise."

"We'll see" the small boy said, and he turned around annoyedly, finding me staring at him. "Excuse me, but who are you?" he asked.

"Ruby" I introduced myself, stretching out my hand which he did not take. "And you?"

"Martin Haynes. So where are you flying?"

_Indeed, a good question._

_No_, I told myself. _I shouldn't even be thinking about this. I have to go home, to London. And, as much as I hate it, to Mom. I couldn't abuse their trust like that._

Or could I?

The point was, it wasn't like they hadn't misused my trust before. And by flying to Italy, I could have holidays, real holidays, without Mom and Dad constantly looking over my shoulder. This would be the first vacation ever I would actually enjoy. I would come home, tan, after a few weeks, and stare into their shocked faces.

And, most importantly, I could find Amber.

"So?" Martin asked.

"I'm... I'm not sure" I whispered.

Maybe I should do it — fly to Italy. This _was_ the chance of a lifetime, after all. Never again would I have this much money and a permission slip to go wherever the heck I want within my teenage years; and with every year I didn't go looking for her, the chances of finding her got slimmer.

Ergo, I needed to go _now_, and maybe I would have a small chance left.

Then again, there was always the question of money. I had no idea how much a flight to Italy was, but there sure as hell wouldn't be enough left over to spend a few weeks there and fly back home. How would I afford it? Nobody would employ a fourteen year-old, that, to top of her clumsiness, didn't even speak Italian.

I sighed. Would this be the reason why I would never see Amber again? Money? No! What kind of a reason was that?

_A good one._

Wait a sec. Maybe, just maybe... would I be this lucky? Did I pack it? I reached into my rucksack at what felt like the speed of light, searching what I was looking for. Martin eyed me suspiciously.

"I'm just looking for something" I explained, and a huge grin formed on my lips when I realized what a lucky bastard I was.

_My wallet! I'd packed my wallet!_

I opened it, finding my mother's emergency credit card inside. "_Who knows what could happen_", she'd said when she had given it to me. "_Use it in emergencies only. Always have it with you, just in case_."

Well, this certainly classified as an emergency to me.

"Volterra" I said, eyeing Martin and his sister. "I'm going to Volterra."

Martin nodded and turned away from me, telling Eliza something. I cast my gaze onto the large screen which listed all the planes that would be flying out today. I smiled when I saw my destined and actual goal on top of each other.

_London XS6Z - 13:50 - DELAYED_

_Pisa HG5D - 13:30 - ON TIME_

Well, that only manifested my decision.

The line moved forward and before I knew it, it was my turn. Behind a counter in the colors of the airline sat a shy-looking, green eyed blonde girl, eyeing her computer screen. A name tag classified her as Willow Evans. She was about twenty-five.

"What can I do for you?" she asked politely and I pulled Dad's envelope from out of my rucksack.

"One flight to Pisa, economy class please." I said, handing her the money. She looked up from the computer screen, a hint of suspicion in her weary-looking eyes.

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen." I answered, and she was about to shake her head when I continued: "Name's Ruby Brown. I have a permission from my Dad." I showed her the permission, and she nodded.

"Wait, _Brown_ as in your sister is Amber Brown?" She looked shocked, if in a positive or negative way I did not know.

"Yeah." I replied. _How did she know my sister?_

"You're not flying to Pisa to go to Volterra, are you?" The woman was worried.

"Actually, I am. How do you know Amber?"

She sighed. "I'm Willow. Remember me? Willow Evans, Phoebe's sister."

"Oh!" I exclaimed as realization struck. Willow Evans — she had been 17 when they'd found Phoebe. Popular, pretty, smart. All in all, the kind of girl who could have done anything she wanted in life. Oh, the irony. "Of course! So how's life?"

"Fine, I guess." She sighed. "I dropped out of school after Pheebs' death."

"I'm sorry." I said, and I meant it.

"Don't be. It's hardly your fault, is it? If anyone's, it was Pheebs' for jogging around in a foreign country early in the morning." She closed her eyes, as if trying to get an unwanted image out if her head. When she opened them again, a single tear was running down her right cheek.

"Did they find your sister?"

I shook my head.

"Listen to me, Ruby. It's bad enough that they're not with us anymore. I don't know what it is with Volterra, but there is something wrong with the city. I had a friend who worked there as a secretary once, Violetta Prandi. They never found her body."

I shivered. "What I'm trying to say is... I can't tell you what to do or not, but I beg you to not go. Three people I know dying or going missing there is enough. Don't make it four, please."

I sighed. "That is a pretty terrifying statistic." I said. "But this is my sister, and she may still be alive. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm flying to Pisa."

She nodded her head in understanding. "Fine." Willow took the money, all of it, and handed me a ticket in return. "Don't go missing, Ruby." She whispered, so that even I could hardly hear her.

"I won't. Have a good life, Willow." With that, I took the small, printed piece of paper and walked away without looking back.

_Without daring to think of the horror that would await me in that cursed city._

**.oOXOo.**

I had gone through security without further complications and reached Gate C by 1:00 PM. Sitting down on one of the black fake-leather seats, I opened my eyes to find the Haynes' right infront of me.

"Mommy!" Martin almost yelled, pointing his index finger at me. "It's Ruby!"

"Who's Ruby?" the maybe thirty year-old with long, blond curls replied, slightly confused. I took myself the liberty of answering the question myself.

"I am," I said, smiling politely. "I met your two lovely children when we were waiting in line. I'm on the flight to Pisa."

"Pisa? Are you on your way to Volterra, too?" Her husband turned around.

"Actually, I am. I'm visiting my sister. And you?"

"We won a tour there on the radio. All expenses paid. The chance of a lifetime, is it not?" The man looked very happy with himself. "We don't go on holidays often, but now not only England but also Italy... you'll tell your grandchildren of this, kids."

"You are very lucky, then." I tried to make conversation.

"Let's hope so. If the tour guide does not show up soon, though, I swear I'll just turn around and go..." his wife trailed off. "Oh, what am I saying. I'm sure she'll be here any minute."

As if on cue, a fox-faced, middle-aged woman with long brown hair, who was exceptionally good looking for her age, walked up to Mr and Mrs Haynes from behind me. She looked Italian.

"Haynes family?" she asked simply. Mr Haynes nodded.

"I'm Lucrezia, but you can just call me Luzi. I'm your guide." They shook hands. "Who is that? Did you bring a plus one?" She asked, looking at me.

"No, I'm just an airport acquaintance." I introduced myself, and she nodded.

"They could take you as a plus one, you know? Where are you traveling?"

"Volterra."

She smiled. "It's settled, then. Unless you have any problems with that...?"

Mrs Haynes shook her head. "No, you're more than welcome to be our plus one, if you want, I guess. You don't seem like the dangerous type. Ruby, is it?"

"Brenda.." Mr Haynes interrupted. "Are you sure-"

"Yes Arthur, I am. Loosen up a little. Be a little generous. I mean, look at her. Does she look like a terrorist to you?"

I blushed.

"So...Rory? Of course you're welcome to be our plus one. You've already paid for the plane, I suppose, but your hotel room would be on us. Or better, that British radio station."

"Actually, it's Ruby. And thank you very much Mrs Haynes, I'd be honored. I really appreciate it," I told her, and we embraced.

"_Lovely_" Luzi interruped the moment, "but the plane is not waiting for us. Let's go."

We quickly boarded the plane, taking our seats. Luckily, mine was on the other end of the plane of the Haynes' and Luzi's; that way, I would not have to make conversation. I looked through the air mall magazine curiously, but closed it again quickly. I just couldn't stand the fake smiles of the models.

The plane reached four thousand meters shortly after and I got out my phone, putting on my earphones and hitting shuffle.

I didn't know wether to feel proud or guilty.

**.oOXOo.**

The Haynes', Luzi and I left Pisa International Airport with our baggage in under ten minutes, jumping into our tour guide's vintage white VW bus. I felt relieved when I sat down inside, realizing I would have had no means to get to Volterra without the peculiar family.

While driving, Mr and Mrs Haynes stayed quiet, Eliza and Martin argued over who could have the bed next to the window at the hotel, and Luzi reminded us of our schedule.

"... thirty minutes to check in, we really don't have more time. The evening tour starts at six, and we wouldn't want to miss it. Now about the hotel..."

I tuned out, focusing on the breathtakingly beautiful landscape that could be seen on the other side of the window. The sky was perfectly blue, cloudless. Wherever I looked, there were meadows, acres, forests, lakes, more meadows... blue, green, brown. Three colors — the colors of a paradise, not a cursed landscape. To me at least.

I grabbed my phone to take a picture, turning it on. To my surprise, I had five new text messages.

Dad_: So did you get home alright? Love you. Dad._

Mom_: Where r u? Its 16:26, you shouldve been home 2 hrs ago._

Mom_: Ruby I dont know what game youre playing, but its not funny._

Dad_: Mom's worried about you. What happened? You can tell me. Love, Dad._

Mom_: Where the heck are you? I'm worrying sick!_

I smirked, and unlocked to send a reply to Mom. I typed the first letters into Whatsapp when I stopped and realization hit me.

I was in Italy. With five complete strangers. Not speaking Italian. Equipped with nothing but an old rucksack and a credit card. Under age. With the goal of finding my sister I had not seen in eight years.

_Yep_, I thought. _This is recklessness._

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><p><em>Read and Review<em>.


	6. A Guided Tour

**Disclaimer**: Twilight and its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. I, on the other hand, own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 5 — A Guided Tour<strong>

"Mommy loves me more!"

"No, Mommy loves _me_ more!"

"Kids, please! We love both of you."

I sighed at the third of many stupid arguments the Haynes family had been having in the last ten minutes, as Luzi's old bus finally stopped infront of what seemed to be the city center of the small village.

While the Haynes' were still busy arguing with each other, I was the first to exit the bus and close my eyes as I stepped out into the open, taking in a deep breath of unpolluted, italian air.

So I had done it — not followed Dad's orders. Done something so entirely reckless it could be printed as an example under the definition of the word '_reckless_' in a dictionary. Gone to Italy when really I should have traveled to a small town in England, to a city I did not even have a map of.

These sure were going to be interesting holidays.

I opened my eyes, and saw Luzi and the Konners getting their luggage out of the back out of the car. I hurried over to them, finding my small, blue rucksack under the avalanche of neon-colored bags and suitcases and pulled it out, causing a large lime green trunk-like bag to fall onto the street.

"Liz, look how clumsy Ruby is," Martin told his sister and pointed at me, laughing. Despite his angelic looks, what with his blond hair, gray eyes and cute face, in a way he reminded me of one of the three that haunted me wherever I was: Louïs. I shivered.

Mr. Haynes cursed when he saw the suitcase and shot me a deadly glare. I gulped, looking at my feet in embarassment. I did not even know this man for six hours now, and he must already be thinking of me as some weird idiot.

Which I was. In a way. The last six hours were proof enough of that.

That second, Luzi spoke up. "Okay, listen up everybody please! See that small, four-story building with the sand-coloured bricks over there?"

I turned, eyeing the building she had just described. It looked very old, maybe even a few centuries. But then again, who was I to tell? Maybe it was just the numerous layers of dust and dirt that gave it this old, gloomy look. What was it? I directed my gaze at the ground floor, to a spot next to the dark brown, wooden entrance door and found the words '_Hotel Piazza_' painted on it with black color. Mystery solved, I thought, internally smirking, and nodded. So did the family next to me.

"Good, this will be your hotel in Volterra. Now, we don't have much time. Like I said in the bus, the tour starts in a couple of minutes — and believe me, you'd hate to miss it. The tours really are legendary. When I saw it the first time...I-"

"Yeah," Martin interrupted. "Get to the point."

Luzi smiled and continued, glancing at her watch. "We have just about ten minutes. Please just go inside, check in, and lock your luggage into your room. Then come back here immediately. _Capice_?"

We nodded synchronically and ran off into the, thankfully, air-conditioned hotel.

I was the first in line at reception, and an unremarkable, black-haired italian girl handed me a room key with the number '13' on it with a forced, polite smile. I instantly ran off to the elevator in an attempt to escape the constant chatter of the twins, which was starting to seriously get on my nerves, staring at the small sign that informed me what room was on which floor for a little while before finally pressing the '2' button.

Ten seconds later, a loud, _ping_-like noise was heard and I was in a long, brightly lit hallway with red carpeting. I found my room almost immediately: it was the one directly on the left of the elevator. Locking it open, I found a large room with, surprisingly, two queen-sized beds, a plasma TV and a small, but romantic balcony. The walls were cream, and the carpeting was just like the one in the hallway.

I did as Luzi had told me, took my rucksack and threw it on one of the beds. Realizing that I still had some time before we were to meet up again, I decided to take a closer look at the balcony.

Stepping out, I saw that it was small, maybe two times two meters, and I could see the entire city square from here. In the middle was a large fountain, surrounded by many small shops, a café, _Giovanni's Bookstore_, and, on the right side of our hotel, a building that was, too, made from sand-colored bricks, looked gloomy and very, very old. Most definetely older than the building the hotel was located in.

It was bigger than our hotel, six-stories and had a small clock tower. Its windows were shaded so one could not see inside, and there were no balconies.

This was the castle, then.

It definetely had something mysterious to it, though. As if there was some dark secret behind the innocent little tourist attraction — something well hidden. I didn't know why, but just thinking of entering that place sent both chills of excitement and anxiety down my back.

I looked at my watch. Two more minutes until the tour began. I should make my way down now.

I grabbed the key, locked the door and made my way down the giant staircase. Luzi was waiting in the lobby, and without a word pointed towards a small group that was gathering around a woman in the city center. I walked towards the door, but stopped just before opening it.

"Aren't you coming?"

It was strange; she looked shocked, as if the thought alone was enough to terrify her. She quickly caught herself, though, and exchanged her horrified expression to a polite smile.

"No, no. I've been too many times already. Besides, there is a separate guide for the tour of the castle."

"Oh" I said, resulting in an awkward silence.

"Go now, you'll miss it." Luzi broke the silence. Her tone was sad. "Goodbye, Ruby."

"Why are you telling me goodbye?" I replied. "We'll see each other when the tour is over."

Luzi stared at me blankly. "Go now" she repeated, looking at her feet. "You'll miss the tour."

I did as she told me, mainly because I knew I wouldn't receive any information from her and to escape the awkward atmosphere, leaving the hotel and feeling Luzi's eyes on my back.

"Hey Ruby" Eliza greeted me as I walked up to her and her family. "How's your room?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but I was interrupted when the woman the group had been gathering around walked up to me. I could see that she was very beautiful; in fact, _too_ beautiful. It looked unnatural — no, allow me to rephrase that. _Unhuman_.

She had long, slightly curly brown hair, skin as pale as snow and -the most terrifying of all- violet irises. Ignore those, and she definetely had model qualities.

Her legs were in a two to one ratio to the rest of her body, and eventhough she was at least a size 2, she was, to put it mildly, not a size 2 up _there_. She was the kind of woman who had all men turning around, jaws dropped when she entered a room, and to show it off, she wore a short, black dress which left no (let me emphasize that: absolutely _no_) room for imagination, and red heels.

_If_ you could ignore the creepy eyes, that is. Which I couldn't.

"Hello" she said, stretching out her hand. "My name is Heidi, I will be your tour guide for today."

"Pleasure" I told her, shaking her hand. It was icy cold. _There is something wrong with this tour_, my subconscious told me. _It all adds up. The mysteriousness of the building. Luzi's expression. Heidi's eyes and skin._

_Run._

_No_, I replied. _Amber might have taken this tour, too. Maybe taking it will help me find her._

"What's your name? You look familiar." Heidi stated.

"Really? I don't remember having met you before" I answered sheepishly. "But the name's Ruby."

Her eyes widened for a milisecond, but then she put her smiley face back on, eventhough there was still a hint of suspicion on her face.

"That's a nice name, Ruby. Would you like to tell me what your last na-"

"Heidi." A brawny, huge man with short brown hair suddenly appeared out of nowhere, effectively making her turn away from me. He had the same violet eyes and white skin.

_Dammit_. So it wasn't something genetic, because they definetely weren't related.

"Felix."

"I'm afraid there's been a slight change of plans. Aro wants to have a word with you. I am to... take _care_ of the group. Oh, and don't worry..." he eyed me. "I'll take care of your unfinished business."

_Run, you fool!_ My subconscious almost screamed. I ignored it.

"Okay" she sighed. "Just one little thing before I go..."

"Are you deaf? Aro wants to have a word before the group arrives. You shouldn't keep him waiting."

Heidi sighed, shooting me one last glare. "Fine." From one second to the next, she was gone.

As in, _gone_. Not even walking away. As in it seemed like she disappeared into thin air.

Humans didn't do that.

"Alright, may I borrow your attention please!" the man named Felix exclaimed, and all went silent. "I'm afraid Heidi has other duties to attend to at the moment."

Several groans could be heard from the group. Felix smirked.

"Do not worry yourselves. It is our highest priority to have our customer's wishes satisfied, and if that includes taking a tour, then our customers are taking a tour. I will be your tour guide. You can call me Felix." By now, everyone was staring at him expectantly except of Liz, who was playing on her mother's iPhone. "Oh, and before I forget... please hand over your electronic devices for the sake of other's enjoyment. You will get them back once you leave the castle."

An evil smile formed on his lips. If it were not for the fact that Amber could have taken the tour, I swear I would have fled as quickly as my legs could take me. Felix and Heidi were seriously creeping me out; and the fact that they literally were taking the chance of calling for help away from us wasn't exactly helping.

Felix had collected all phones, cameras, music players and tablets by now, but the sadistic smile hadn't fled his face. _Oh my fricken God. I'm gonna die in there._

"Follow me" he merely ordered and the group followed him like stupid, mindless chicken. I would take this tour, I decided then. I would do everything to find my sister, and if that involved dying in some terrifying 'tourist attraction', then she'd probably suffered the same fate.

The interior of the castle was beautiful, nobody in their right mind could deny that. I had been right; it was old, very old. The floor was entirely made of uneven pieces of stone, which made both Eliza and Martin trip synchronically and scratch their knees. Blood was streaming down their legs, and I could have sworn I'd seen Felix turn around to them with a wanting look in his violet eyes.

The walls on the other hand were plain and white, with the occasional painting in expensive-looking, gold encrusted frames. It was hard to see what was in the paintings, though. It was very dark, as if it was night, eventhough it had been just after 5 PM outside. Every fifteen meters or so, we would pass a window in the ceiling and Felix would pull up the hood of his dark grey cloak.

Astonishingly, I seemed to be the only one to notice that Felix wasn't telling us anything about the things we saw while walking right past them at all. All we seemed to be doing was walk after him.

"Daddy, I can't see" Eliza complained.

"I'm cold, Mommy!"

"My knee hurts!"

"Can we go back to the hotel?"

"I'm scared!"

"Will you be quiet?" Mr Haynes scolded his twins. "It's a medieval castle, for God's sake, it's supposed to be scary and cold and dark!"

As if he had overheard their conversation, Felix said, "Do not worry yourselves, we will reach the tour's destination shortly. Let me assure you that it will be both warm and light where you are going."

That sounded wrong.

After one more minute of just walking around the always same-looking halls, I cast my gaze to the right. There, in about two meters, another painting was coming up. Luckily, there was a window right over this one, so maybe, just maybe, there would a chance that I could see what it was picturing. I paused to stand when I reached it, not realizing that the group was moving away from me. What I saw took my breath.

Infront of a pitch black background stood a boy, perhaps, no, certainly the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. He was small, maybe one or two years younger than my fourteen years, yet somehow, from the depth in his eyes, he seemed much, much older.

The boy had short brown hair and full lips, and eventhough he shared the same pale skin and strange eye color as Heidi and Felix (although his eyes were red, not violet), I could not feel scared of him; quite the opposite. It was almost like a natural wave of calmness was spreading through my body at his sight. A strange, but rather enjoyable feeling.

I didn't know why, but somehow, this painting mesmerized me.

I turned around then, knowing I should get back to the group instead of staring at ancient paintings. But to my surprise and shock, I could neither see nor hear them.

Just perfect, Ruby.

Sighing, I followed the maze-like corridor in the direction the group had been walking in. It couldn't be so hard to find a loud group of tourists, after all.

Or could it?

Even after two more minutes of walking, they were nowhere to be found. It was official now: I had lost them, and I would not find them, either. I would have to quietly take my leave now; return to the city center and accept that if my sister had gone missing here, I would never find her as Heidi and Felix would recognize me as the girl that ran away the next time I were to join a tour group.

I was pulled from my thoughts when, out of nowhere, a large rectangle-formed ray of light appeared on the stone floor. Dazzled by the sudden brightness, I closed my eyes and walked back into the darkness to protect my eyes from exposure. Curious to find out where this blinding light came from, I opened my eyes again and saw an open door that led to... what exactly?

A large, green area. Thinking that, if I was already in here, I would control every place I could for signs of Amber, I walked over to the heavy wooden door and entered what I now recognized to be an enormous garden that looked like it was taken from the page of an Elle Decor magazine.

I walked into the center of the garden, and noticed my jaw dropping at the lovely arrangement of flowers and decorations. Why wasn't this part of the tour? It was certainly much more interesting than the dark hallways.

**.oOXOo.**

I was lying on the grass, staring off dreamily into the cloudless sky. I knew I should be leaving by now; after all, Amber was definetely not in this garden and the tour group would probably be leaving in a few minutes. Sighing, I imagined what I was missing. Where had the group been headed to? I shivered as I remembered what Felix had said about the destination.

"_Let me assure you that it will be both warm and light where you are going._"

He said '_you_'. Why did he say '_you_'? Why didn't he say 'where _we_ are going'?

_You should be happy_, my subconscious told me. _I wouldn't be too surprised if they're all dead by now. And you survived to tell the tale. Get the hell out of here while you still can!_

**.oOXOo.**

**Only few meters away...**

We watched in silence as Chelsea walked over to the last remaining human — a young woman with blond curls who was lying on the marble floor face down, attempting to play dead to save herself, not aware that her attempts were in vain as her heartbeat was giving her away. Chelsea made it quick and clean, and not even a single scream emerged from the woman's throat while she was dying.

The second she finished her meal, Felix and Afton came forth, picked up the body and threw it onto the large pile of bloody corpses. I quickly counted the bodies, and my eyes widened when I noticed a small, but crucial detail.

"Heidi?"

She bowed. "Yes, Master?"

"Didn't you say that there were thirty-eight humans in today's group?"

"Yes, Master."

I sighed. "My, my, Heidi. I would have thought you and Felix were more capable of taking care of our victims."

I could see the sudden panic in her face. "What do you mean, Master?"

"Well, Heidi, despite the original number of humans, there are only thirty-six corpses. Demetri took one to his chambers, but that would still leave us with thirty-seven. Therefore, my dear Heidi, one human is on the run."

"Leave. Now." Caius hissed. "Do not return before the human is taken care of. You may dispose of it yourself."

"Yes, Master" Heidi bowed again, and in a matter of milliseconds she was gone.

**.oOXOo.**

"Hello."

Standing up and casting my gaze to the left, a beautiful, pale woman I recognized as Heidi walked up to me, smiling. She was wearing a long, dark grey cloak, just like Felix's.

"Um... Hello. I... I kind of lost the group." I replied awkwardly, sighing. "Sorry I just walked into the garden. I guess I should have just left."

"It's quite alright" Heidi told me. "What is your name?"

"Oh, right. I haven't properly introduced myself, right? I'm Ruby. Ruby Brown."

She smiled again, but somehow, this time her smile wasn't genuine. It seemed almost sad.

"Tell me, Ruby..." she began, her beautiful voice sounding more unsure of herself by the minute. "What is a young woman like you doing in a foreign country without her parents?"

"I..." I sighed, closing my eyes. "I'm looking for my sister. She went missing in this town over eight years ago."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be" I told her. "It's hardly your fault, is it?"

She didn't answer.

"Do you know her, by any chance? Amber Rose Brown? She must be twenty-two by now."

"I know no _Amber Brown_." She shook her head, and her hair moved along synchronically. "Come now. The tour is over, you should leave."

I nodded my understanding. "Fine. If I may ask, when is the next tour? I'd really like to see what I've missed..."

"Oh." She said, and she looked like she'd just been confronted with a problem she hadn't even thought possible of existing. "Um... I'm sorry, but we have a strict one visit per visitor policy here due to the large number of requests."

"Oh. Okay then, I guess. Can you show me the way out, though? No offense, but the hallways are like a maze here."

"That is their purpose — to keep unwanted visitors from leaving." She explained.

"Do you mean like back in the middle ages?"

"Yes." Heidi smirked. "In the middle ages."

She took my hand then, and we made our way out of the gardens. We were back inside the dark hallways before I knew it, and it took my eyes several seconds to adjust to the darkness.

"Ruby?" Heidi asked.

"Yes?"

"Why are y-"

She was interrupted by the agonizing scream of a woman, maybe twenty meters away from me. I shivered, goosebumps forming on every inch of my body.

What was happening?

I knew that I just had to help her. There was no other option for me. I turned around into the direction of the scream, not knowing that what I saw would change everything.

There was a woman. That was all I could say about her; it was hard to say what she looked like with the man standing infront of her. What I did notice, though, was the woman's skin. It was deathly pale, but not like Heidi's or Felix's. It was the skin of a person who was moments away from death.

And the man - _oh God_. He was beautiful, so very beautiful... His teeth sank deeper and deeper into the woman's throat, blood running down his cloak, emptying her of life. A horrified scream escaped my lips.

That moment, I was violently thrown into a wall. Was it him? No, no, no! Please, I was too young to die...

It was Heidi.

"I'm afraid there's been a change of plans" she informed me, but this time her voice was dead serious. And with that, she dragged me off into the direction the group had walked in.

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><p><em>Read and Review, as usual.<em>


	7. Wrong Place, Wrong Time

_Disclaimer_: Twilight is owned by Stephenie Meyer, not by me. I own my original characters only.

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><p><strong>Chapter 6 — Wrong Place, Wrong Time<strong>

I was out of my mind in fear, trying to find a way out of Heidi's stone-like, strong arms as we made our way through the gloomy corridors, walking further and further into the castle. The little hope that had still remained for this situation to end positively left me just seconds ago when I saw that man and his victim, the woman with the blond curls.

I was so naïve to think that anything good would come out of this trip; instead of to my sister, it brought me into a castle of strange-eyed, blood sucking monsters. And the worst thing about it was: there was absolutely no way out of it. Heidi, Felix, the man — they were all stronger than me, so much stronger that I was almost like a little porcelain doll to them in comparison, ready to be crushed at any second.

Willow, Phoebe's sister, had been right. This city was cursed, and I, the fool, had walked into it willingly. I remembered Violetta, her friend, whose body had never been found... and I remembered Phoebe, Willow's sister, who had been found in the forest bloodlessly. I wondered if they'd ever find me. I wondered if Mom and Dad would come after me.

"Heidi, I beg of you... I will not tell a soul, I swear on my life... just let me go alive..."

I was well aware that it probably sounded completely and utterly ridiculous, but I was desperate. So desperate.

Heidi rolled her eyes. "I cannot make you such promises."

Tears streamed down my face then, clouding my vision. Heidi couldn't be bargained with, I realized. I would die, and I would never find my sister.

What a lousy way to die.

"Fine." I said, gathering all of my courage. "Kill me, take my life... just tell me one thing. Do you, or do you not, know what happened to my sister?"

She did not answer.

We reached a giant pair of heavy, wooden doors then and Heidi stopped right infront of them. She was silent all of a sudden, but when we locked eyes, she looked sorry.

"Listen to me now, Ruby" she said, her voice sad yet calm. "Dry your tears. Do it. Now."

I did as she told me, and when I was finished she continued. "We will go into this room now, and when you are inside, you must speak only if you are spoken to, do you understand?"

"Yes" I whispered.

"Good." Heidi nodded. "If you are asked a question, answer it truthfully. Other than that, do as you are told and stay at my side at all times, do you understand? This is of the utmost importance."

I nodded slowly.

"Fine. Listen to me, I know you feel as if there is no hope left for you, but believe me when I tell you that that is only _partially_ true. Your fate is out of my hands the second we enter that room, it will be in the hands of those inside. You will do well to remember that."

I nodded once more, and Heidi threw open the heavy doors as if they were made of butter.

The room was (how could I possibly describe it?) breathtaking. It was circle-shaped, had polished marble floors and a dome with paintings that would put Michelangelo to shame. Long, rectangular windows littered the walls, the light reflecting off the back of three black chairs — thrones, almost — with golden elements.

All of these three thrones were occupied, and all three of their owners were, simply out, extravagantly beautiful. However, with their pale skin, long black robes and piercing crimson irises, I could not help but feel like a lamb to be slaughtered.

The man on the left throne had long, brown hair, looked about nineteen and very, very apathetic. The man in the middle looked about Amber's age. He had long, black hair and stared at me as if I was his shiny, new toy. The man to the right, though, shot me a sadistic, purely evil glare that made cold shivers run down my spine. He had blond, almost white hair.

I instantly felt even more uncomfortable standing infront of them; if that was even possible given my current situation.

"Heidi!" the black-haired one exclaimed, a confused expression on his face when his eyes met mine. "Did you forget your orders...?"

She shook her head. "No, Master."

_Master?_ What the heck was this place? "_Ruby Brown_ here got lost on the tour."

Surprisingly, all three of them flinched at the mention of my full name. I was startled by their reaction. How could anything about _me_ possibly be frightening to _them_?

"Heidi" the blond man said, still eyeing me. "I thought we had taken...precautions for this kind of situation?"

"Why is she still here?" the man in the middle asked straight forward. "Am-" He stopped suddenly, closing his eyes and then starting again. "My mate will be malicious when she hears!"

"Am? As in, Amber?" I blurted out, immediately regretting having opened my mouth when four sets of violet and crimson eyes stared back at me. "Do you... know her, by any chance? I'm looking for her."

Silence.

The left one continued after a while, cautiously though, not daring to look me in the eyes. "Tell us then, Heidi: What were the unfortunate circumstances that led to this?"

Heidi took my arm, walked up to the thrones and dragged me with her. I did not struggle, eventhough going anywhere near these three Masters was against all of my instincts. I simply was not in need of a broken arm, that was all. We reached them shortly, and stopped infront of the man in the middle.

"I think it easier if you were to see this for yourself, Aro" Heidi told him, and, when he nodded his agreement, stretched out her left hand towards him.

The man named Aro took it eagerly, closing his eyes in concentration. Nobody dared to make a noise as he was in this trance.

Then, the strangest thing happened. All of a sudden, a ray of light shot through the large windows, illuminating the hall and making the grey and black cloaks' skin sparkle as if it was made of thousands of tiny diamonds. It was, of that I was sure, both the most beautiful and the most terrifying thing I had ever seen.

Had I had any doubts concerning these people's non-human status... well, they were certainly all gone now. Humans simply didn't sparkle in the sun, it was as easy as that.

Immediately they tensed, their superior expressions turning into deep frowns.

"Well, I guess there's no point in believing in her ignorance anymore now, is there?" the blond man snarled, and I knew that very moment that whatever these monsters were, whatever Heidi had told me, they were not going to allow me leave this room alive.

"No!" Heidi yelled beside me, her beautiful face turning towards Aro. "Please... you know it will kill her."

Kill who? _Me_?

But Aro shook his head.

"Heidi, you are more than biased, and I am afraid must ask you to leave the throne room for this. Demetri, go ahead and take her to her room. I will call for her if I need her again."

The man that I had seen in the corridor appeared out of nowhere then, stains of the woman's blood still covering his cloak. I took a closer look at him and saw that he had messy, brown hair, a handsome face and an average build.

He noticed me staring at him and hissed, his crimson irises shining with obvious bloodlust. I quickly averted my gaze, glaring down at the marble floor.

I did not want to gather his attention again, and therefore did not dare to allow my eyes to follow the two as they made their way out of the room. I heard the heavy doors shut behind them mere fractions of seconds later, knowing that I was alone now, without Heidi to protect me.

Nobody made a sound, and I stood in my spot in the center of the room motionlessly while waiting for one of the Masters to say something. My wish was not granted. All three of them were staring at me intently, as if to figure out what to do with me.

"Ruby, is it?" the man to the left said all of a sudden, breaking the silence. "My name is Marcus. These are my brothers Aro and Caius. Please, do not be afraid."

"I'm afraid that's impossible given the circumstances."

He smiled kindly. "I know this must be hard for you, but it is what it is necessary. Surely you agree?"

I nodded insecurely, uncertain of what he had just said.

"Good. Now, there are a few questions you will need to answer. _You must not lie_. Believe me, we have our ways of finding out if somebody is lying," Marcus replied, eyeing Aro.

"Is there anyway that I will leave this place alive?" I asked straightforward.

Aro sighed.

"That, dear one, depends entirely on your answers." Marcus informed me, and I gulped.

"Let us get on with this, then" Caius apathetically sighed. "Who are you and why are you here?"

I closed my eyes in an attempt to tune out the pairs of unnaturally colored eyes that were staring at me and began.

"My name is Ruby Brown. I came to Volterra to come looking for my lost sister."

"Did you come alone?" Aro inquired.

I nodded. "I... I was just supposed to fly home from my Dad's house, but then I decided to seize the opportunity and come looking for Amber."

"So your family is looking for you?" Marcus brows furrowed.

"I don't know," I replied truthfully. "It's just been a few hours."

"And why, if I may ask, would you risk flying to a different country by yourself, underage, just for your sister's sake?" Caius hissed. "She must have been missing for a long time."

"Because," I sighed, "this may sound mildly ridiculous, but shortly before she disappeared, she called me. And... and I just had this nagging feeling that she couldn't be dead."

The Masters shot each other anxious looks at my reply. "So she did not forget the call." I heard Aro whisper in a tone just loud enough to be audible. Hearing this sent chills down my back.

They had heard of me and my story already. They knew me. There was only one reason for this: Amber was here.

So there was hope left for me.

"Ruby" Marcus pulled me from my thoughts. "How did you get on this tour?"

I shrugged. "I... I met this family at the airport, they'd won a journey to Volterra on the radio. We made a little small talk, and when their tour guide showed up, she said they could take me as a plus one. Of course they agreed. Then when we arrived in Volterra, we were almost instantly ushered into the town square and followed Heidi. Well, no. We followed Felix, Heidi left but shot me this strange look as if she'd seen me before before she left-"

"And how did you lose the group?"

"I..." My cheeks flushed bright scarlett, suddenly embarrassed of the entire painting-incident. "I... saw a painting."

"Of what?" Caius asked impatiently. "You saw a painting of what, human?"

"A painting of a boy," I admitted, closing my eyes in shame. "He was very beautiful. Looking at him made me feel," I gulped in embarrassment, ashamed to say it, "_calm_. I was...mesmerized."

Caius rolled his eyes.

"And when I finally turned back around the group was gone. I thought I'd maybe find them, but all I found was a garden, so I went there and stayed until Heidi showed up."

"Did anything _unusual_ happen when you were with Heidi?" Marcus demanded.

"Well, honestly — yes. Heidi was about to show me the way out when I heard this scream, and I turned around to see it was coming from a woman who was being..." I shuddered at the memory, "...bitten in the neck by this Demetri guy."

Caius shook his head. "How dare Demetri expose ourselves to humans?"

Aro shot him a silencing look, then continued the interrogation. "Did you notice anything else unusual, or even anything that was slightly off within the castle?"

I thought about this for a second, too terrified of the people in the thrones to even consider lying.

"The eyes" I said almost immediately. "Red and violet. I thought it was something genetic when I first saw Heidi, but then Felix came along and they didn't look related at all."

Marcus nodded approvingly. "Anything else?"

"Yes." It came out far quieter than I wanted it to be, but alone the fact that they were interrogating me and not the others led me to the conclusion that my subconscious had been right in more ways than one — and the tour group hadn't left this place alive.

"Heidi's strength. The heightened beauty. When Demetri killed the woman. Obviously. I mean, that's just not human. And, of course, you guys sparkling in the sunlight."

Aro sighed. "She knows too much."

"She's a liability." Caius added. "There are only two options now."

I closed my eyes, yet again. Maybe if I woke up from this nightmare now, these monsters would perish. True, I did not know their choices, but something told me they were a choice between pest and cholera.

Unfortunately, I did not wake up.

Standing up from his throne and walking towards me, Aro's face lit up in a polite smile. "Ruby, _dear one_... give me your hand."

"W-why?"

I choked as panic got the better of me. Who knew what he would do to me if he had a hold of me. A broken hand would be one of the merrier things my imagination had to offer.

"Do not worry yourself" he said, his voice smooth as velvet. "I know you are trying to keep up the illusion of being calm, but your heartbeat is giving you away, dearest. I do not mean to worry you. No harm will come to you if you give me your hand, I promise it."

I didn't buy it.

"Your promise is worth nothing given the power you would obtain over me. I am sure that you could crush me in a second."

"Why, a smart one, too." Marcus commented.

Caius shook his head annoyedly. "While that, _dear one_" he made it sound like a swear. "...may be a perfectly logical point, I believe you have no choice if you do not want to share the same fate as your dear american family and the rest of the group."

He smirkingly stared at something behind me, and while I was aware that turning around to see what it was would likely be foolish, my inner, curious child took over, shutting down my mind.

I slowly turned around.

"Felix!" Aro cried almost desperately, as if not _my_, but _his_ life was on the line.

As if on cue, something very, very hard slammed into me then, full force. With all his might, Felix pulled me into the other direction, but it was too late. The second horrified scream that day left my lips, and I felt my legs give in under the weight of what I had seen.

Across the room, in a corner on the left of the entrance, lay, stacked into a great pile, the deathly pale, motionless bodies of the people I had entered this hell with just several minutes ago. Their clothes were soaked in their own blood and that of others, some of their eyes threatening to fall out of their sockets in pure terror.

To my absolute terror, I instantly recognized four of them: the corpses of the generous, slightly peculiar family who I had taken this fateful journey with. Eliza and Martin were on the very bottom of the pile, seemingly holding each others hands. While I was relieved to see them at the bottom, as it probably meant that they were one of the first victims and did not need to witness their parents dying, I felt the tears blurring my vision and my breathing growing heavier as I saw that Liz' neck was twisted in an unnatural angle.

I averted my gaze, only to see a woman with long blond hair staring at me from the very top of the stack of dead bodies. It was their mother.

"Vampires" I whispered in realization, falling into Felix's arms. Then everything went black.

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><p><em>Read and Review, please.<em>


	8. Of Cats and Birds

_Disclaimer_: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight, I don't. I do however own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 7 — Of Cats and Birds<strong>

**.oOXOo.**

**In a distant part of the castle...**

A room. Filled up to the top of the old stucco ceiling with items of pure luxury, almost as pointlessly gigantic as the one her human sister had just lost her consciousness in, a seemingly fourteen year-old girl with deadly pale skin and long brown hair lay on a red velvet chaiselongue, reading one of her husband's old manuscripts from Renaissance times.

Once in a while, she would lay the book aside to stand up and take a look at the Botticelli paintings on the cream walls or the almost park-like garden that seemed to extend endlessly outside of her windows, and sometimes, she would even call for somebody; but all in all, she enjoyed spending her days isolated in her room and the nights with her mate or friends.

It was an extravagant, carefree, even royal life that she had grown accustomed to over the years. And one thing was for sure — she was grateful for it.

Suddenly, the girl's peace was disturbed as the heavy wooden door to her room was thrown open, full force. She shuddered at the memory of what had begun over eight years ago with the same action and, putting away the manuscript, stood up from her seat, now standing in a protective position with her teeth bared.

She visibly relaxed as beautiful, brown haired vampire with startling violet irises who she recognized as her friend entered the room, and sat back down, sighing.

"Heidi," she smiled. "What can I assist you with?"

"Nothing," Heidi replied quietly. Her voice was shaking.

The girl noticed it immediately, tensing. "What is it?" she asked anxiously. "I have a feeling something is up."

Heidi took a deep, unnessecary breath and replied: "Ruby."

"No." It came out as nothing but a whisper. "No, it cannot be."

The girl closed her eyes, scanning the castle for a familiar scent. To her absolute horror, she located one. It came from the throne room.

**.oOXOo.**

I opened my eyes, my vision growing more accurate by the second. Where was I? Was it morning already?

More importantly, why was there a dome in the ceiling?

I froze as a dreadfully familiar face came into my view — Felix. I remembered it all then; my journey to Volterra, the painting, Mrs Haynes and Demetri... and her children. I must have lost consciousness and fallen into the vampire's stone arms, because there I was now.

"Brother, the human is awake," Caius, the blond vampire, remarked, glaring at me.

I gave him a look of pure disgust, slowly standing up and in vain trying to keep Felix from helping me. I hated him. I hated all of them, in fact. Soulless murderers, that was what they were.

"Yes, so it would seem brother" Aro replied casually, turning towards me. "Dearest Ruby, would you now do me the honor of giving me your hand?"

I was torn between following Heidi's advice to do whatever I was told in order to save my life, and screaming senselessly at him, telling him my mind and waiting for my senses to fade away in death like a flower's petals at the start of winter; over a long period of time, leaving behind nothing but a useless corpus. I was about to just go ahead and do what had brought me into this situation in the first place, spontaneously doing something ridiculously reckless, when my sister appeared infront of my inner eye, smiling down at a younger version of me.

My heart skipped a beat at the pleasant memory, and it was that moment that I knew exactly what to do. For the longest time of my short, miserable life, I had imagined what it would be like to be reunioned with her. Now that the opportunity had seemingly presented itself on a silver plate to me, I had received a chance to convert the dream of my late childhood and early adolescence into real life.

Aro, as much as I hated him with every piece of my soul, had mentioned an '_Am_'. He knew of the call. Wether I liked it or not, she was here, or had been, and it would be nothing if not foolish to give up if the end of this marathon was now so close that the finish line was almost visible.

"Yes," I sighed, taking a deep breath.

Felix released me, and I saw an unknown male vampire giving me an encouraging nod as I made my way towards the other end of the room, towards Aro.

He smiled almost as a concerned father would as I reached him, taking my right hand without wasting any further time. Just like with Heidi, his eyes closed in concentration, and the entire room fell silent. Unlike with Heidi, his eyes opened just seconds later, a both uncomfortable and excited expression forming on his face.

"Marvelous!" he exclaimed joyously. "Simply marvelous!" Turning towards Marcus, he added: "It would seem that this little one is immune to my powers!"

What powers?

Several gasps were heard.

"Mine do not seem to work on her, either" his brother informed him. A greedy look filled Aro's crimson eyes for a moment, but it perished when Caius spoke up.

"_Fratello, ricordati che questa ragazza è. Tua moglie non sarà contento se si mantiene la sua._" (Brother, remember who the girl is. Your wife will not be content if you keep her.)

Aro nodded sadly. "_Naturalmente. Purtroppo, la legge pretende di lei_." (Of course. Unfortunately, the law claims her.)

This was one of those moments were I really regretted taking Spanish and not Italian. I did not understand a word of what they were saying... maybe it was better that way, though, thinking about it.

Sighing, Aro locked eyes with mine. "Let us have the girl's opinion on this sadness."

"You can not be serious" Caius sneered. "She is nothing but a meek little human. If not for her identity, she would be lying somewhere along those corpses now!"

"I believe Aro has reason. It his her fate, not ours, brother." Marcus agreed, then added: "_Il suo compagno non sarà così vizioso se almeno ha dato alla ragazza una possibilità_." (His mate will not be as vicious if he has at least given the girl a chance.)

"Bene." (Good.)

Right, you've had your fun. Now stop the Italian, I want, no, _need_ to know what the heck is going on here.

As if Aro had heard my thougts, he turned back to me, his smile mutating into a deadly serious frown.

"Tell me, young one" he said, "Imagine you had a bunch of birds, flying around all day. They live in perfect peace and harmony, until one day they see a beautiful being with bright red fur on the ground and decide to take a break and land to marvel further at its beauty. Have you understood me so far?"

I was about to make a sarcastic remark, but remembered where I was and simply nodded.

"Good. The birds land and the beautiful being turns out to be a cat, a dangerous predator. They are somewhat blinded by the beauty though, mesmerized by it, you could say. They decide to follow it, try desperately to make it notice them."

I shook my head in disbelief. "No bird would be that suicidal."

"Believe me, there are more than enough," Caius snickered.

Aro rolled his eyes, continuing.

"Anyway, dear Ruby, what if I now told you that it was all a trick, and a foul one at that, designed by nature to make the prey easily allured into somewhat consensually finding its death?"

"I'd tell you that that does not really surprise me" I said truthfully. "Eventhough even if there were a dozen of those cats, it would not have to mean the bird's demise."

"Yes, but if you had a little bird trapped in the middle of a dozen cats, you surely understand that the logical consequence would be the death of it...?" Marcus trailed off.

I fervently shook my head. "That depends entirely on the bird."

"What do you possibly mean?"

"Well, if it is in shock and terrified so much that it literally can't even think about what's happening, of course it will be an easy kill, I am not denying that. But what if it defends itself? What if it tries its luck?"

"Ruby, dear, believe me when I tell you that it _can't,"_ Aro smirked.

"Yes, it can" I told him, and continued: "It could fly away. There are more birds than cats; if one flees, the predators will be too busy with the others to come after it, or maybe even not notice at all."

There was silence then, and I thought I had won the argument when Caius spoke up.

"But a bird will always be a bird: foolish. Even if it is theoretically free, it will still not manage to run far away."

"This is not a hypothetical discussion anymore, is it?" I demanded. "I am the bird who flew away. I escaped, but I did not run far. You found me, and here I am."

Aro sighed heavily. "_Intelligente e di talento. Lei sarebbe un meraviglioso guardia_." (Intelligent and talented. She would make for an intriguing guard.)

"_Sarebbe_." Marcus replied almost inaudibly. (Would.)

Caius shifted uncomfortably in his throne. "The question is: will we allow it to escape a second time?"

Aro stared at me, lost in thought for a while, then looked up at the three vampires to my left. "Felix, get me Heidi. _Go_." The brawny vampire nodded, and only milliseconds later he was gone.

"Ruby" he turned to me, a cheery tone to his voice.

"It seems I have made up my mind. I am aware that you are no longer oblivious to what we are, and I propose to you what you would refer to as a 'deal'. You will leave Volterra forever, and cease searching for your sister. In return, we will allow you to leave unharmed. If you decide to forget about our conditions..." he pointed towards the pile of dead bodies behind me.

"There is _always_ room for one."

A cold shiver ran down my spine. I despised the deal, but in that very essence of a moment, it was not even the fear for my life, but the thought of the mountain of dead bodies in the corner that won over my sense of logic. With an insecurenod of my head, I agreed.

That moment, the heavy wooden door opened and Heidi and Felix entered.

"Masters" the female vampire said, bowing. "How may I be of assistance?"

"Please take dear Ruby here out of the castle," Aro ordered.

"Yes, Master" she replied, seemingly both surprised and relieved, and grabbed my wrist, dragging me out.

"Oh, and Ruby!" Caius called after me, and I could hear his smirk. "Wings are easily broken."

The door closed behind us then and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

Never in my short life had I been so glad to leave a place, ever.

"What happened?" Heidi asked curiously after about twenty meters. "_Spill_."

I sighed. "Not to be rude, but... having a near-death experience is traumatizing enough, and I am more than just glad I am even walking out of here now. I'd really prefer not to talk about it."

She nodded understandingly and we continued our walk, walking past the entrance to the gardens and the painting that had saved my life. All was silent except for the sound of my own footsteps; Heidi's were inaudible. I did not even notice Heidi's cold skin around my right arm as we made our way, I was too overjoyed to leave this castle with blood in my veins, heart still beating.

"You were the first in three thousand years, you know?"

"The first of what?" I answered.

"First human to leave alive, without even receiving a deadline to be turned. You should be proud of yourself."

I did not know what to answer to that, but I certainly had no problems at all to believe it. The only incredible thing about this information was the fact that, at least the Masters, were three thousand years old. A clip show appeared infront of my inner eye, snapshots of Marcus, Aro and Caius killing innocent humans in all kinds of centuries and situations. I shuddered.

We reached the door I had entered through only a few seconds later. I was about to open it and run away as quickly as my legs could carry me, but Heidi held me back.

"Wait" she whispered, and I turned around. She had a small, neatly folded piece of paper in her deadly pale hand. "You can take it, if you swear to keep your side of the bargain."

I nodded energetically. "I swear."

She gave me a whole-hearted, friendly smile and lay it into my opened hand.

"Open it outside." Heidi sighed. "Goodbye, Ruby. It was nice to have met you, no matter the circumstances."

She embraced me, and when she pulled back, I took my chance, losing no time. I was out of the door and back on the Piazza dei Priori among the oblivious population of Volterra in fractions of seconds, unfolding the letter Heidi had presented me with while walking back to the hotel.

_Dearly beloved, _

_Do not go after me again; instead, leave as quickly as possible. Promise me this. When my husband will find out about this letter he will be livid, and I would not want for you to experience his anger. _

_I am aware that I have been a bad sister to you, but you must understand that all of it has happened for a reason. Go back into oblivion, Ruby, remember that ignorance is bliss. Do not show this letter to anyone, or speak of its content. If you are reading this you have left the castle alive; do not attempt to do the impossible twice._

_ I love you, dearest sister, and as a sign of my affection this will hopefully be the last you will hear of me. Live with the satisfaction of knowing that I am alive and well. _

_Our parents want only the best for you, Ruby. Be a good daughter to them, losing one child is hard enough. Open our mother's present, and you will understand. _

_A._

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><p><em>Read and Review<strong>.<strong>_


	9. Broken

_Disclaimer_: Obviously, Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight while I don't. I merely own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 8 — Broken<strong>

I read her letter again and again that night, clinging to the impossible hope that there was some message hidden between the lines that I had not noticed yet.

Hours passed like seconds as I lay on one of the hard beds of Hotel Piazza, memorizing every detail of the folded piece of paper.I had even sniffed it one or two times out of desperation for information; it smelled faintly of lilacs and orchids, sweet but not too insistent.

_Go back into oblivion, Ruby, remember that ignorance is bliss. _

I chuckled sarcastically. As if that would be possible. Nobody would be able to see what I had seen inside that cursed castle and simply forget it as if it were some birthday or the shoe size of a relative.

In fact, I knew that very moment that this incident would haunt me for the rest of my now miserable-again life, robbing me of sleep. And the very worst thing about it was: I would not be able to tell a soul without having to fear them coming for me. They said life held an infite amount of possibilities for me, but with only fourteen years of age I had managed to decrease that number drastically.

At this point, I had only two choices left. I could either live on with the weight of unwanted knowledge bestowed on my petite shoulders, or..._not_.

Was it an easy choice? For life? Before all of this happened, so would it have been for me. But now...? Maybe they would grant me to see my sister one last time before they drained or decapitated or strangled me for repeatedly entering their lair. Theoretically, wasn't that all I ever wanted? To see Amber again? And I was so close, so close...

_If you are reading this you have left the castle alive; do not attempt to do the impossible twice. _

But then again, what reasons did I have for staying alive? To go home to my non-understanding, oblivious family and live a long, anxious life. To spend four more years alongside Marlena, Alexis and Louïs and somehow manage not to scream the horrid reality into their flawless faces.

To never marry a man because I would either keep a terrible secret from him or, by telling him, doom him.

_To live_.

I looked up at the digital clock on the wall, the only source of light in the now dark hotel room. It was already nearing three in the morning. Maybe it was too late in order for me to be in the state of mind to make such a decision, but a decision had to be made, quick.

If I were to choose life, tomorrow morning would be the time to leave this city forever. The time to experience my parents' anger. Otherwise, just as Amber had predicted, I would experience her mystery husband's anger — an experience that would very likely be even more cruel than I could imagine.

Never in my life had I been so confused about what I truly wanted.

**.oOXOo.**

_I opened my eyes, recognizing the outlines of a small, colorful yet somehow familiar room. The floor was a polished mahogany wood, littered with all sorts of thrown aside toys and books. The soft pink walls formed a perfect square, the furniture a glossy shade of white and very girly._

_ It was the room of a spoiled little girl. _

_Posters of princesses in glittery dresses hung everywhere, matching perfectly with the barbie dolls and pink sparkly shoes I was wearing. _

_It was then that it hit me — it was _my_ room, or at least, what it used to be. Over the years, the walls had been painted a turquoise greyish color, and the childish furniture removed, but I still remembered every single detail of what it had looked like on... _that_ day. _

_And exactly that was the reason why goosebumps were forming on every inch of my six year-old dream body: it was precisely the same. _

_The way the dresser door was throwing shadows on my bed, the way the doll my sister had sent me from Italy lay beneath my covers as if it were sleeping, the way I was wearing the pink sparkly shoes I would never wear again after the incident that would change my life for the worse. It all made sense. _

_It was... _that_ day. _The_ day. The day an unknown man's voice would tell me that Amber, my beloved sister, was as good as dead, eventhough I would never, not for one second, believe him. _

_I froze as a ringing noise disturbed my thoughts. The phone was ringing in the hallway. Amber was calling home. I had lived through this moment so many times before that every single detail had burned itself into my mind. As I walked out of my room and towards the sound, it all felt strangely familiar. _

_I couldn't help it, no matter how hard I tried to resist, my legs kept moving me further and further away from the safety of my room. Using every ounce of willpower I had left in my body, I fought a battle I knew I could only lose as my hands reached out for the phone, which was now within reach. _

_As usual, I lost. I picked it up, slowly pulling the blue Nokia towards my ear. _

_I knew I would be the first to say something, and, knowing it was practically impossible to say anything else than the exact same thing I had said the very first time, opened my mouth to do exactly that, in the silent hope that this unwanted dream would pass quicker than the others. But, for the first in hundreds of dreams, Amber unexpectedly spoke up first. _

_"Ruby" she said quietly and urgently, "We are both dead girls." _

_I furrowed my brows, confused at her sudden statement. _

_"What do you mean?" I asked in my high, child-like voice. _

_She sighed heavily. "There is something I must tell you..." __Suddenly, there was a knock on the door in the background, and I realized then that sadly, she would not come any further._

_"Just a minute" she called out, only for the sound of the door being kicked open behind her to be heard not more than mere seconds later. _

_"F-ck" she cursed, and I flinched. "Ruby, I love you." _

_I closed my eyes, mentally preparing myself for what was to come. And sure enough, my sister's horrified scream followed instantaneously, prompting me screaming in desperation. As always, I was helpless. _

**.oOXOo.**

I woke up from the dream then, surprised that I had been spared the most haunting part — the one containing the husky voiced man. But just as I opened my eyes and turned towards the wall clock to see how long I was locked inside my own terrifying memories, I let out a high-pitched, desperate scream.

Sitting across from me was a man with short, pitch-black hair and unnaturally high cheek bones. No, allow me to rephrase that. He _had_ been a man once, but now his crimson irises stared back at me with a sadistic smirk.

He was pale and gifted with an incredible beauty, just like Heidi and the other monsters. _Vampire_, I thought, and froze in fear. He wasn't wearing one of the cloaks the vampires in the castle had on, though, and, deciding that he would _not_ know of the fact that I had been spared, took it as a tell-tale sign of my own demise.

Truth be told, I had had more luck than reason lately, but now...no way on Earth could a person be this lucky twice.

I had undoubtedly been dealt my final deck of bad cards.

"W-who are you...?" I stuttered, and an amused smile formed on the hunter's thin lips.

"Since when does the prey feel the need to get acquainted to its predator?" He replied sarcastically, and my heart temporarily stopped beating.

I would recognize that voice anytime. The deep husky voice... it was _him_. The vampire that had made my sister scream.

_Oh, dear god. Please, let that Caius guy have his fun with me... just make him go away..._

"Ah, _there_ we go" he smiled. "Your heartbeat is quickening, finally a natural reaction. Tell me, young one, why, oh why is your blood so incredibly taunting...?"

"Go away" I managed to croak out. Tears started pooling in my eyes, blurring my vision.

"Feisty" he commented, that evil smile still not having vanished his lips. "I like it. A little adrenaline always makes the taste a little more exciting."

Immediately, he was next to me, holding my frail neck in between his icy cold palms. I shivered. "Unfortunately, I'm too thirsty to play with my food."

"N-no!" I cried out desperately. "P-please! Not m-me! I already b-barely escaped with m-my life yesterday..."

He turned away his head in disgust. "Spare me your pathetic stories. I do not wish to hear them."

Suddenly, I was violently thrown off my bed and towards the nearest wall, one of my back bones cracking at the impact. I wailed out in pain; it was too much to handle for me.

Damn my low pain threshold.

"P-please..." I begged, thick tears rolling down my face, staining my clothes and the carpet.

He shot me a wanting look from his place behind the bed, and shortly later I felt his freezing breath on my neck. Finally giving up, I closed my eyes and waited for life to leave me.

This was it, then; a short, miserable life ended by a slow, painful death. What had I done to deserve this? I had never lied, never stolen, murdered. Never had I commited any crime at all.

The only regrettable decision in my life was this very journey. But was I really to blame for wanting to find my sister?

Maybe there was no God. Maybe all there was was injustice and pain, with short, fulfilling moments, which I had never experienced. Hopefully, I thought, death would be peaceful.

That second, the top of his teeth met my skin, and I could not help but picture a piece of silk cut with a sharp knife as he gradually increased the pressure on the barrier between his mouth and my blood. At this point, I could only pray that he would do what he had to do quickly and painlessly. It was all I was asking for.

If there was a God, he obviously didn't give a damn.

The vampire closed his eyes in obvious pleasure, smiling as he took a deep breath of my scent. "I have never smelled anything as good as this, girl... it is almost as if your blood were ambrosia to me." He sighed sadly, grasping my arms with his, ensuring I would not escape.

"I love you, Amber" I whispered, my voice almost impossible to understand through the heavy sobs that were burying me alive. I closed my eyes one last time, waiting patiently for him to take my life.

Black.

Nothing but empty blackness, wrapping its slender arms around me.

But it did not come.

Confused, I opened my eyes again. Why was I still alive? Why had he not drained me?

The man was sitting next to me, offering me an almost... kind smile. His eyes were pitch black.

"_Why_ am I not dead?" I asked, hoping for an explanation. No answer came. He merely stared at me in silence. I looked away, studying the wall clock and counting the seconds.

"Of course" he said after a while. "_That_ is why you looked so familiar."

"What do you mean? _Why am I not dead?_" I repeated my question.

"Is Amber your sister?" He demanded impatiently.

I nodded quietly. "Do you know her?"

"Were you, by any chance... _inside_ the castle?" he replied, completely ignoring my question.

"I was," I answered truthfully, not even bothering to lie.

"I lost the tour group, and when they found me I was brought to this throne room. Aro allowed me to leave if I were to never speak of what happened in the castle again." Sighing, I added: "But what does it matter now. Either you are going to kill me, or Aro will, for breaking our deal by telling you."

Giving me possibly the most evil smirk I had ever seen, he replied: "Let us see how long we can postpone his anger then, shall we?"

And blackness came.

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><p><em>Because I could not stop for Death,<br>He kindly stopped for me;  
>The carriage held but just ourselves<br>And Immortality._

_~ Emily Dickinson_

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	10. Out of The Bag

_Disclaimer_: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, not to me. Surprise surprise.

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><p><strong>Chapter 9 — Out of The Bag<strong>

My eyes slowly opened, lifting the veil of darkness which had spread over me. I felt dizzy. As more and more light made its way towards my retina, I made out the silhouettes of people staring down at me and hastily tilted my head to the left, not wanting to look whoever these strangers were in the eyes.

Where was I, anyway? I vaguely remembered sprinting out of the castle and into the hotel room to analyze my sister's letter, and then it all came back to me. The vampire. Husky voice. Thirst. Being thrown against the bedroom wall. Last words. Sudden interest. Blackness.

I felt my heartbeat quicken. Hadn't I so willingly given myself to death, twice even, in his presence? What was it about me, the stupid little teenager, that made both the living and death turn away from me, but the undead so incredibly interested in preserving my existence?

A smooth, kind male voice pulled me from my thoughts and back to the polished wooden floor, where I was currently lying and trying to maintain the impression that I was still unconscious. "What should we tell her when she wakes up?" it asked.

An arrogant female voice answered. "We tell her the truth, of course. We've basically obliterated her chances of a normal life, we might as well just tell her why."

Who were these people? Considering that a vampire had brought me here, they must be vampires, too. I felt my heartbeat quicken, and desperately tried to calm myself. Who knew if they could hear it, they were vampires after all. I would not take any unnessecary risks.

"Vladimir has been a fool in bringing her here" another male voice with a slight spanish accent sighed. "When Aro finds out, he will be livid. If he has really spared her, be sure that he will have our heads for this. We should take her back to her home town before she gains consciousness and pray that he will leave us in peace if he finds out."

_Vladimir_.

So that was the name of the vampire that had haunted my dreams.

As if on cue, said vampire gave out an amused chuckle. "My dear Eleazar, you fail to see the big picture. You are right, we do give Aro a good reason to terminate us by keeping the girl, but just think of the possibilities. Since our goal is to protect another human, we could make a trade with the Volturi. One human for another."

"The _other human_ has a name, you know" an unnerved, not quite as beautiful as the others female voice interrupted. "And it's Bella."

I disliked her instantly.

"Bella, calm down, sweetheart" a calming, teenage male voice soothed her. "All of these people are here to protect you from our enemies. I think you should be a little more grateful."

Wait, what? So Vladimir only kidnapped me save this incredibly obnoxious Bella girl? I could not keep my heartbeat down any longer. It was neither fear, nor angst that pulsed through my veins now, but anger. How dare they wanted to trade my life in for hers! And what on Earth was this '_Volturi_' anyway?

"Carlisle, I think the human has gained consciousness" Vladimir stated, and I mentally cursed myself. _Way to go for self control, Ruby._

I opened my eyes. Giving me a warm smile, a vampire with short golden hair and strange irises the color of my sister's name stared down at me, holding out a hand to me. "Hello, young one. My name is Carlisle Cullen. What is your name?"

I took his hand and stood up, wailing as a sharp pain shot through my back. "Ruby," I croaked out before turning towards my kidnapper. "Was it really necessary to throw me into a wall?"

He shrugged. "I guess I _do_ like to play with my food."

Carlisle shot him a punishing look, then continued his little speech of welcome. "Welcome to our home, Ruby. I am aware you must have many questions, so fire away."

I sighed. "Well, where am I, for starters?"

"Naselle, Washington" the arrogant voice, who obtained long, seemingly flowing blond hair and such immense beauty that every last ounce of my self-confidence turned to ash at her sight, stated. "We moved here from Forks, Washington a few months ago."

"This is my adoptive daughter, Rosalie" Carlisle introduced me. "And these are my other adoptive children, Emmett, Alice, Jasper, Edward and Bella." He said, pointing to four other vampires with golden eyes and a very obviously human woman, who gave me a look of pure apathy. She had long, brown hair and caramel eyes.

This Bella girl must have been twenty-something, but she acted like a teenager.

Says the fourteen year-old. Man, when did I turn into a hypocrite?

"Pleasure to meet you all" I replied sarcastically and turned back to Carlisle. "Why do you have amber irises? The vampires in Italy and Vladimir both have crimson ones."

"You know of our kind?" Carlisle demanded uncertainly. I nodded. "Back in Volterra, a tourist was drained infront of my eyes. Later in the throne room, Caius pointed at a point behind me at the back of the room, and I turned to see what it was. Turned out it was a gigantic pile of bloodless corpses. Wasn't that hard to piece the pieces together then."

The man with the spanish accent, who had short black hair, shook his head in disbelief. "Aro has pardoned her eventhough she knows of our kind. He must have had a _very _good reason to do so. This girl will be our demise."

I sighed. "Could you please answer my question?" I asked Carlisle, hoping to change the topic.

He nodded absentmindedly. "Of course, Ruby. It is quite simple. Vampires who feed on humans have crimson eyes, while those who feed on animals have amber ones. My family and I feed on animals, so do our relatives from Alaska, like Eleazar here" he pointed to the vampire with the short black hair.

"And his family, the Denalis, which you will meet later. From our small group, Vladimir is the only one who feeds on humans, but you have nothing to fear from him. Understand that your blood... _sings_ to him, but a fight with his enemies has priority over blood to him."

I remembered how he had told me how taunting my blood was to him and shuddered.

"So why am I here, then?" I asked, coming to the point.

"Let me tell her, please!" Bella begged Carlisle, suddenly lively and excited. "Just us two humans."

Seriously? They were getting into a fight because of _her_? Hardly understandable.

Carlisle nodded in agreement. "What a good idea, Bella. Go to her room, I gather a little privacy would be most helpful. Call for me if you need anything."

Bella smirked, taking my hand and dragging me away from the vampires, towards a modern, white staircase. I didn't complain. I hated the way she acted like I was her pet, but at least it wasn't Heidi who was dragging me around. I was grateful, so I kept quiet.

I hadn't had much time to inspect the interior of the house earlier for obvious reasons, but now I had all the time in the world. The house was very modern, with entire walls of glass except of simple windows. Its furniture was mostly white and black paired with either light blue, greyish purple or hunter green and was assembled in a minimalistic kind of way. All the floors and some of the walls were a light wood.

All in all, the pettiness with which it was decorated reminded me of my home in London hundreds of miles away, and with it of my mother.

No, I could not think of her. Instead of flying home to her, I had flown to Italy and had almost been killed by vampires the same day. And to top that off, the very next day here I was, held captive by animal eating vampires in some small town in Washington, USA.

I could not imagine the worry that must have taken possession of her. Police were probably searching for me in every corner of the United Kingdom by now, not that it would help much. I would very likely never return home, it would be just like with Amber all over again.

And I had not even opened her present, not even told her I loved her before leaving her forever without knowing it. True, she along with my father completely misunderstood me and we never got along, but they _were_ my parents after all.

And deep down, I felt the tiniest bit of love for them covered by the piles of contempt that had formed over the years.

We had reached the second floor by now, and Bella stopped infront of the only closed door in the entire building. Signalling me to open it and enter, I grabbed the golden door handle and pulled it down.

I had always hated gold.

Inside was a small, purely white and cream room with a glass wall across from its door. There was no bed; instead there was a fifties style white leather sofa with a variety of cream pillows meticulously assembled in ten centimeter distances from each other on the right side of the room.

On the left, there was a glossy white piano with a Caspar David Friedrich painting hanging over it. The other wall, into which the door was worked into, was completely covered in a light wooden book case.

I had always hated Friedrich.

"Do you play?" Bella asked politely as we entered, pointing at the piano.

I shook my head. "I never played an instrument. I always preferred reading."

She smiled. "This is the perfect room for you, then. Let's sit down, shall we?"

I simply nodded and sat down. The sofa was far from comfortable; I could only imagine trying to sleep on this thing.

"Sorry there is no bed by the way" she quickly apologized, noticing my dismay. "We usually use the room as a piano room. We don't normally have guests that need to sleep, and it was the only vacant room."

"It's fine" I waved her off, deciding not to mention that she had just referred to me as a 'guest' and what a strange wording that was, considering I had been kidnapped, and silence formed around us. Just perfect. The last thing I needed now was awkward silence.

"So why am I being held captive here?" I asked after some thirty seconds, growing more impatient by the second.

"It's a long story" Bella said. _Oh, really_.

"I'd like to hear it anyway, if that's okay with you."

"You know Edward and I are a couple, right?"

Who was Edward again? And why was this relevant? "Yes."

"Good. We met in Forks just about eight years ago, in 2006. I was seventeen back then. On my eighteenth birthday party, I got a paper cut while opening my presents and his brother Jasper attacked me. Two days later, Edward broke up with me because he wanted to keep me safe and the entire Cullen family moved away. I was a shell of a person for about six months, then I met Jacob, who used to be my friend when we were kids. Turned out he was a shape-shifter who turned into a wolf. But that's beside the point."

_It sure was. _

"Anyways, one day Alice was there when I came home. I'd been cliff-diving that day and I'd almost drowned if Jacob hadn't saved me. Alice can see the future by the way. She thought I died because she hadn't seen me being saved. Edward found out, and he departed to Volterra."

That sounded like a chapter out of one of these terrible supernatural romance stories.

"What does this have to do with Volterra?" I asked, suddenly interested.

"The coven of vampires you met in Volterra, they call themselves the Volturi. You could call them the monarchy of vampires. They rule over their race."

Bella sighed. "And they have laws. Well, one most important one. It's that no human can know of the existence of vampires without being killed or turned. Which is why everyone is so surprised they let you out alive, by the way. But let me get on with the story. Edward thought I was dead and wanted to expose our kind somehow so that they'd kill him. Vampires can't commit suicide."

"Can vampires kill each other, then?"

Bella smiled. "Well, aren't you curious. Yes they can, they must tear their opponent apart and then set the limbs on fire so they won't reconnect. You're gonna see that first hand in a few days time, though."

"What do you mean?" I demanded.

"All in due time, Ruby. Where was I? Ah, yes. Italy."

This girl was an absolutely horrid story teller.

"Anyway, of course Alice and I got on a plane to Volterra and saved Edward before it was too late. Only that Aro found out Alice and I had arrived, too, and wanted to meet us in person." She shuddered. "We were in the throne room shortly after. All was well, except that I was obviously a human who knew too much. I was lucky, though, just like you. They let me go because the Cullens promised to turn me."

So she was one of these humans that they let go eventhough they had to be turned, like Heidi had said.

"But they didn't." I said. "And you've been human for six years too long in their eyes now."

She nodded, and I saw the tears pool in her eyes. Taking a deep breath, Bella continued quietly, as if she were uncomfortable with the way things had turned out.

"They visited at least twice a year, making sure I had lost my mortality. But Edward refused to turn me, he didn't want to turn me into a 'monster'. He thought I'd lose my soul."

First he breaks the law, then he makes the Volturi find out, and then, when they have pardoned his girlfriend for the moment, he won't do what they ordered him to do... which inevitably would lead to Bella losing her life. Great job, Edward.

"By the third time they visited and I still wasn't turned, they got aggressive and found out about Eddie's plans of keeping me human. So one week later, two of their best fighters and another came to Forks with the goal to terminate me; we had had our chance, they said. Not that I blame them really..."

"What happened?"

"Remember the Denalis Carlisle talked about downstairs? They used to live in Alaska before Edward got them to permanently move in with us so they could protect me if the Volturi decided to kill me."

With a grave voice, she added: "And so they did, the day before they came for me again. Of course, three were powerless against seven Cullens and five Denalis. One of them died, Jasper decapitated him. I think his name was Santiago... or something like that. Anyways, the Volturi haven't shown us a hint of mercy since then. They create vampires for the sole purpose of fighting against us, and they come without warning every once in a while. There were always only few, though, so we always won."

She sighed. "Vladimir is about as old as the Volturi leaders, three thousand plus. He used to be part of the Romanians, the coven that ruled before the Volturi. He's been waiting for a chance to pay them back since millennia, so when he heard about our situation he moved in without asking. He was originally in Volterra to spy on them, but then he found you."

Everything clicked then, the entire dreadful reality spreading out in my mind.

"Of course," I exclaimed. "Amber went missing in Volterra eight years ago. She probably joined the Volturi for some reason, but before she was turned she called home to tell us some story so we wouldn't look for her. I got a call from her that night. She didn't even start explaining before I heard her scream and Vladimir's voice telling me she was as good as dead."

It all made sense now. "Now, eight years later, Vladimir found me. He was about to kill me, but I mentioned my sister's name and then he understood that I was her sister, probably because of the physical resemblance, too. And he brought me back here."

"Yes" Bella nodded sadly. "From what I've been told, your sister is... in a_ close relationship _with Aro, if I can put it that way. He was hoping if he brought you to the battle field, he could..." she stopped abruptly. Tears ran down her cheeks.

_...exchange your life for mine._

"Ruby, I'm so sorry..." she cried. "I'm so sorry that you got dragged into this mess."

I was fighting the tears. Had they ever even _met_ the Volturi? They would _never_ make a deal with lawbreakers, I just knew it. Hopefully, Amber would fight for me, but what good would it do?

I was a lamb about to be slaughtered. It was dreadful, yet inevitable.

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	11. Masks of Innocence

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does. I do own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 10 — Masks of Innocence<strong>

_My life for Bella's._

It rang through my head like a mantra, again and again, mercilessly shouting the dreadful truth at me. I tried to ignore it at first, but in vain. And after a while, I stopped trying entirely. Of what use would it be to ignore it, anyway? It was the truth, nothing but the truth.

It would be cowardice to act like it wasn't happening, and, I realized that very moment, bravery was the only thing that would help me maintain my level of sanity. I wiped the tears away with the fabric of my dark green sweatshirt, took a deep breath and closed my eyes in silence. It was ironic; all of my life, all I had wanted was company — now that I had it, I detested it.

"Ruby?" Bella asked in a concerned tone after a while, still sobbing. "Are you alright?"

I refused to answer her.

Sighing, she tried again. "Ruby, please, I know this is hard for you, it is for all of us... _please_, talk to me."

But I stayed silent, internally chuckling at the fact that it was hard for _them_ and that she had included me in the 'all of us'.

Bella left after a few more minutes of silence, slamming the door behind her. I had not been able to hide my amusement. I was to be traded in or killed like a piece of meat in a matter of a few days, and _she_ thought she had a hard life?

Hardly.

The hours passed slowly as I sat on the stylish yet highly uncomfortable couch, changing my position every once in a while.

Carlisle knocked on my door at some point, offering me food and company, but I gladly refused. In the room, it was just me and my thoughts; I was grateful for that. I could not comprehend why he thought I would feel the desire to talk to him or any of his pathetic excuse for a 'family', anyway. He had not kidnapped me personally, but he had not wanted to take me back to my family, either. It made him no better than Vladimir himself in my opinion.

I opened my eyes, a strange experience after sitting through countless hours of pure black. It was night outside, the wide forest landscape outside of the glass wall covered by a thick layer of darkness. My eyelids were heavy, but I felt no desire at all to sleep. As if to prove my own point to myself, I stood up from the white leather sofa and sat myself on the even more uncomfortable light wooden floor, staring out of the window apathetically.

Somewhere out there, I told myself, both my mother and my sister were standing infront of a window, too, a hopeful smile lighting up their faces at the thought that somewhere, beyond the horizon, I was as miserable as them.

For what seemed like the one thousandth time that day, I cursed myself for taking that fateful trip to Volterra. I regretted treating my mother like I had during our last meeting. I hated myself for putting my parents in a situation as hopeless and terrible as this. I damned myself for never opening my mother's present.

Now, the opportunity was gone. My rucksack, and the present within it, were still in the holiday room in Volterra.

Yet at the same time, a wave of self-pity rolled over me. It was an odd and most certainly unpleasant combination.

Because, as much as I had played a significant part in changing my parent's life for the worse, I was now at the mercy of an entire dozen of dangerous supernatural creatures who were oh-so-blasé to the fact that they had shortened my life expectancy to another one or two weeks. I saw right through the masks of politeness and friendliness they had transformed their pale faces into, right into the dark inside. Now that I was still with them, they would surely play the role of the innocent bystanders that were only pulled into this situation by Vladimir, who somehow obtained a bad relationship to the Volturi, as if that were enough of an explanation.

Complete bullocks, of course.

Bella herself had told me that Vladimir only just joined them a short amount of time ago, and I hardly believed that such a newcomer would possess enough power to force eleven other vampires into respecting his decisions, and _his_ alone.

I had overheard their conversation; they could have brought me back to London, yet they hadn't. I was much too valuable to them for that. Secretly, they admired Vladimir for taking me here, I knew, but they did not have the bravery to admit it. And acting like it wasn't their fault infront of me instead of pleading their case was just so much more convenient.

Myself, I wouldn't be fooled by it. The second the battle commenced, they would drop their masks and mercilessly kill me if necessity presented itself, I was sure of it. It made me wonder which of the two sides I was on; the Cullens or the Volturi?

The ones that normally wouldn't dream of harming me but were now taking all possibilities from me, or the ones that normally would harm me without second thought yet had spared me to allow me to lead a normal life?

I honestly didn't know anymore.

**.oOXOo.**

**In Volterra...**

I was in my chambers, working on one of my plays and listening to classical music. It was noon outside, and I had opened my window to let in some of the warm summer breeze. My skin sparkled faintly, casting prismatic rays of light all across the desk and the walls. It was quiet, peaceful.

All of a sudden, that peace was disturbed as the door to my room was thrown open and I turned around. Standing in the doorway, dressed in a long-sleeved black velvet dress and raven Mary-Janes, was my sister.

"Jane!" I exclaimed joyously. "I thought you were spending the day with the Mistress and Heidi. Have you changed your plans for some quality time with your good old brother?"

She rolled her eyes in return. "You're only older by a couple of minutes, Alec. And no, I haven't changed my plans. Amber simply requests your presence in her study, that's all."

Puzzled, I stood up. "Why would the Mistress request my presence?"

"I don't know. And the Mistress has a _name_, you know." Jane replied. "Which she immensely prefers to her official title."

I shrugged. "Let's go, then."

We left and ran in utter silence, following the dark maze-like corridors towards the wing of the Masters and their wives. We stopped infront of the small wooden door next to Master Aro's chambers after several seconds, and Jane gave me a knowing, honest smile before speeding off as quickly as she had come. Taking a deep breath, I shyly knocked on the door.

"Come in" a voice soft as silk answered and I entered the study.

Inside, the young Mistress was standing infront of a wide mahogany desk which was circled by dark bookcases. Her face lit up as she saw me.

"Alec!" she said and embraced me. "How was your mission to Russia?"

"Most satisfactory, my lady" I replied politely. "Although I doubt you have called me here for small talk."

"You are indeed right" she told me. "And I have summoned you here to give you a piece of information that will very likely change not only yours, but all of our lifes."

"What is it, Mistress?" I asked anxiously.

"It seems" she began, but struggled to find the right words. I decided to look away to lessen her embarassment and stared out of the window into the wide Italian countryside.

"It seems, my dear Alec, that your mate has been found."

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	12. Irony

_Disclaimer_: Stephenie Meyer owns all Twilight characters and ideas. I own only my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 11 — Irony<strong>

I was lying on the light wooden floor of the piano room face down, my long hair blocking the view of my surroundings. A low sigh escaped my throat as I slowly stood up, pulling the brown streaks out of my face.

It was early in the morning; the sun was just going up over the forest, painting the sky and clouds in ironic shades of ruby and amber. I hastily averted my eyes. As stunningly beautiful as it was, being reminded of my hopeless situation was truly the last thing I needed now.

It was quiet now, silent even, and I preferred to obtain the illusion that everything was just as it used to be — oblivious, ignorant and peaceful — while I could. No vampires, no Volturi, no death. In this short harmonic moment, it was all I could ever desire.

I closed my eyes again, trying to tune out the real world. I did not even necessarily think about anything, all I did was breathe, count my breaths and meditate. It was refreshing. Nobody disturbed me; maybe the vampires were still asleep. If they could sleep, that was. While one part of my brain was desperate to know, another internally chuckled at the bizarre question. After a while I let the subject drop and went back to my meditation.

After what seemed like a few hours, I decided it was finally time to face reality. I slowly opened my eyes again, letting all the impressions in one by one. The first thing I saw from my place on the floor was the sky, which was now its normal shade of greyish blue with the occasional cloud. I saw the forest next, a collection of dark green pines and maple trees that seemed to stretch out infinetely.

Under any other circumstance I would have found it breathtaking; now all I could feel for it was contempt. The forest reminded me of its location, and the location reminded me of the house I was in, which reminded me of its owners and the reason I was here.

Sighing, I stood up and made my way towards the door. My stomache ached from hunger, and my throat burned from dryness. Time for breakfast, I thought as I was about to open it.

Looking down at myself before going, I saw I was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday, but I did not mind. At the moment, satisfying my hunger was more important than my dignity. Quickly combing through my hair with the fingers of my right hand, the weight of my left one pressed down on the doorknob.

The door did not open.

I pulled down the golden doorknob several times with all the force I could muster, but in vain. I kicked the door with my right foot, hoping it would break in; I ran against it; I, blind with aggression, even tried to break off the door handle. Nothing helped. Eventually I started screaming at the top of my lungs out of desperation.

No one came to my aid.

I walked back into the room and threw myself onto the floor, staring out of the window. Was this supposed to be some cruel joke?

"Carlisle! Bella! Edward! Anyone! The door won't open! Help!"

Suddenly, realization dawned on me and my screams died down. Of course they wouldn't come to help me. They had locked me in. I was their hostage, after all. No need to maintain the illusion that it was any other way.

A black figure sped through the forest. It looked strangely familiar.

**.oOXOo.**

Within the last four days, the white door to my room had opened exactly eleven times: four times it had been Alice, a black haired pixie, who brought food and water, two times Bella and once Carlisle, who had wanted to keep me company and console me. I had always refused to talk to them; one did not converse with one's kidnappers, it was as simple as that. And in a way, I was glad — after all, Vladimir himself had never visited.

I had myself for company and the books for entertainment, which sufficed. Once in a while I would stare out of the window and into the forest, too. With every passing day, I saw the black figure again. I could never make out a face or even the hair color though, it was too far away for that. I would always get excited when I saw it, hoping to receive a clue about its identity.

My sorrows vanished when I saw it, and I was grateful.

At the moment, I was sitting on my usual spot on the floor, reading an old copy of Jane Austen's _Pride and Prejudice_ while the sun shone directly onto my face. It was a pleasant feeling; I could almost taste the heat on my skin. For one short moment I was completely at ease with the world; then, for the twelfth time in four days, the door opened. I turned around expectantly.

Vladimir stood in the doorway, key in hand and a malevolent smile on the lips. "Hello there, human. It's been a long time since I saw you last."

_ Luckily_. "What do you want?" I replied icily.

"Alice saw that the battle is to commence the day after tomorrow." He explained. "Jasper has some experience in fighting, he is going to be giving us yet another lesson. Bella is coming, as usual. Carlisle thought it would be only fair if you were allowed to come, too."

I nodded. It wasn't like fighting skills would help me preserve my life when the battle started, but I was glad I was at least presented with a chance to leave my prison. "Let's go, then."

"Why am I not surprised...?" Vladimir smirked as he held the door open for me.

I exited the room hastily, afraid that he would change his mind and keep me locked up after all. My worries vanished into sweet nothingness when he closed the door behind me, and just the hint of a smile formed on my own lips.

"It's nice to be free" I said.

"That's an interesting definition of 'free' you've got, human," he replied, suddenly grabbing my hand as if he was afraid I would suddenly run away. It was deadly cold. Shivers of dread ran down my spine.

We made our way down the staircase, through the modern living room and into the garden in utter silence. No, 'garden' was definetely the wrong word. It was a gigantic park-like area, its end marked only by the beginning of the forest.

True, it was a little balcony compared to the 'garden' in the Volturi castle... yet I had to admit that it was very impressive.

The seven Cullen vampires, Bella, and five others with amber irises, which I assumed to be the Denalis Carlisle had talked about after I had awoken here on my first day, were awaiting us patiently. Carlisle's face lit up in a polite smile as he saw us, the others remained unsurprisingly apathetic.

"Hello there, Ruby!" He greeted me. "Welcome back! I'm very sorry for keeping you locked up, but you surely understand that we wanted to take extra precautions when it came to you."

I did not, but I nodded in agreement anyway. I was not in the mood for an argument. "Good. Now, Esme, Edward, Rosalie and I are going to go hunting now, but we are going to join the training shortly. How about you just sit down on that boulder next to Bella while the others practice."

"Sounds okay to me" I agreed and sat down. Bella gave me a friendly smile and embraced me. Meanwhile, the vampires got to their places and Jasper started forming groups of two.

"Why didn't you talk to me the other day?" Bella suddenly asked, sounding offended. "I only wanted to help you..."

"Sorry" I said simply. "I wasn't really in the mood."

We were interrupted by a loud cry coming from the part of the garden where the training took place. Vladimir was fighting Emmett, or so it seemed. It was hard to say when both fighters where doing so at what I presumed to be something near the speed of light.

"Just ignore them" Bella told me. "You're going to hear that a lot now."

I could not understand her. A vampire battle would commence in only two days with us in the middle of it, and she was as joyous and blasé as ever. She was and remained a mystery to me.

"I guess," I sighed. "So is this what the next days will look like? Training and waiting for the fight to come?"

"I don't know" She replied truthfully. "I try not to think of it. It's the only way I will not worry myself to death within the next days."

"But aren't you afraid?" I asked. "The entire coven is coming against you, after all."

"Of course I am. Who wouldn't be?" She said in a whisper. "All of us have only two more days left, _especially_ you and me. But reminding myself of it does not change anything, so I'd rather not talk of it. It's the only way not to lose sanity."

She was right, for once. Her words were so unexpected and right-on that sudden tears of shock began to form in my eyes. I looked away from her and into to the forest so she would not notice.

"On a happier note" Bella began and the cheerfulness had returned to her voice. "It's a beautiful day today."

Something was moving in between the trees, quickly but not quietly. I could hear the rustling of leaves and the sound its motion made on the ground. I felt my hopes rise; was it the black creature? Would I get a glimpse of it?

My hopes vanished as quickly as they had arrived as a small rabbit with creamy white fur sprinted out of the trees.

"Look!" I exclaimed, pointing towards the animal. Bella's pale face lit up in a smile.

"Isn't that cute?" She stated, her voice high-pitched. "I've never seen a rabbit here in all of my years. Come here, rabbit, come!" She ordered, and sure enough, it changed its path and made its way straight towards us.

"How on Earth did you do that?"

"I used to have a guinea pig named 'Duck' when I was a child. He'd run away often." She informed me, her eyes on the rabbit.

"Ah," I ingeniously responded, the animal only meters away from us now. Bella cooed and talked to the rabbit with the same annoying high-pitched voice, hoping it would choose her over me. Yet, it was in vain. Life is ironic at times, and so, ironically, it settled for me.

"What happened to Duck?" I asked as I picked the rabbit up from the ground and put him in my arms like one would carry a baby. "He was... run over by a truck after running away one day." She said, subdued. "It wasn't my fault, though. He became deaf with age." Bella defended herself.

"Right" was my intellectual reply as I began to pet him. "Do you think I can keep it? It's just for two days, anyway. Oh, I think I'll call it..._irony_."

"Why would you do that?" Bella demanded, flabbergasted. "If you're going to keep it, couldn't you give it a _real_ name, like Daisy or Sweetie or something?"

I shook my head. "Irony seems to be with me at all times. It's only fair that I should call my pet something that would oblige him not to leave me."

A scream was heard from the meadow and I turned around. Vladimir had won the duel with Emmett, who was laying flat on the ground in defeat. Vladimir only yawned, purely metaphorically of course, his usual malicious smile on the lips.

"Does anybody want to try their luck against me next?" He cried out, but no-one replied. "Thought so" he mumbled arrogantly.

Emmett had stood up in the meantime, eyeing Bella and me with amusement.

"Look" he cried out. "Ruby's found a snack."

"You're joking, right?" Bella demanded as my facial expression turned to one of terror.

"Do I look like I am?" Was his response. His face was dead serious.

"Leave Irony alone!" I screamed defensively, standing up from my seat with Irony wrapped tight in my arms.

Several snickers were heard at the mention of its name. Vladimir rolled his eyes. "You keep amazing me with your stupidity, human. Now give the vampire his snack."

I shook my head firmly. "No."

Vladimir's eyes turned pitch black in anger. "It's either the rabbit..." he began with the same dreadful sadistically slow way of speaking he had informed me of my sister's near death, "...or _you_."

Everything fell silent. Nobody dared stand up for me. Bella, Alice and the rest kept their mouths tightly shut in anticipation.

Great.

"Are...are you serious?" I asked him.

He nodded solemnly. "Which will it be?"

"...you wouldn't dare kill me. I'm too important to trade in in the battle, remember? You'd never stand a-"

It was then that Irony did full justice to its name.

Trying desperately to escape my grip, the feline rabbit bit down, deep into the flesh of my right arm. Thick red liquid oozed out of the wound within milliseconds, coating my skin in my own blood.

While Irony seized the opportunity and ungratefully ran off, my eyes widened as I saw Vladimir's irises turn into a deadly pitch black. Quite the opportunist, he sprinted towards me with only one intention before Alice or Jasper, who were standing right beside him, could hold him back.

It all happened very quickly, then.

An agonized scream escaped me as the vampire sank his teeth into the wound, inexplicably hot and torturing fire spreading throughout my body instantaneously. The audience woke from their trance of sick fascination at the sound. Before I knew it, a small black-haired female pulled Vladimir away from me, leaving me alone with the all consuming pain.

Bella was still frozen in shock.

Suddenly, another noise came from the forest. With the last bit of energy I could muster, I turned my head towards its source. There, at the entrance of the forest, stood the black creature. I knew why he had looked strangely familiar now.

It was the boy from the painting. And before anybody had the chance to say a word, he picked me up and ran off into the safety of the trees.

I wanted to look at him while he ran away with me at vampire speed, but the pain stopped me. One and another scream escaped my lips in total agony as I felt the boy from the painting run his cold hand gently over my cheek.

"Shh, shh" he consoled me with a caring tone to his voice. "It's alright. I'll make the pain go away." As if on cue, thick black mist surrounded me. I tried to escape from it, but he reassured me.

"Don't fight. It will numb your senses."

I was not sure if I could trust my saviour, but as another wave of pain shot through me I knew I would do anything to make the pain disappear. I did not put up a fight. The mist engulfed me shortly later, and the agony abruptly came to an end.

He had numbed me.

"Thank you" I told him gratefully. "How did you do that?"

The boy presented me with a crooked smile. "Why, dear girl, it is my ability. And I am happy I could be of assistance."

"What's your name?" I asked.

He looked me straight in the eyes, his ruby irises bearing a caring and gentle look within them.

"Alec" the picturesque vampire boy told me, and I felt complete.

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	13. Completion and Agony

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters or ideas, Stephenie Meyer does. I merely own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 12 — Completion and Agony<strong>

"Alec," I repeated happily, burning the name into my mind. A smile spread over my face.

The boy in question presented me with another crooked smile in reply, the wind playing with his short brown hair as he continued sprinting through the forest with me in his arms. My heart melted at the sight.

Suddenly and without even the slightest warning, my sense of logic completely perished, leaving me alone with only my feelings to trust. It was the most relieving thing I had ever experienced; almost as if a weight of a few tons had been lifted off my frail shoulders. Forget all of my previous life; I was reborn.

That very moment, I felt truly infinite. It was as if gravity had left me, and all that was keeping me on the ground was him. That very moment, it was only Alec and me. Everything else had completely vanished from importance.

What a strange feeling, especially since I had only known him for a minute or two.

"Do you like my name?" Alec asked me with a caring tone to his voice, and something about the way he was looking at me as if all of his dreams had suddenly come true at once made me realize that he felt the same as I did. I nodded sheepishly in reply.

"Why did you save me, Alec?" I asked after a few more moments of comfortable, dreamy silence.

He smiled. "Because, Ruby..." he stopped, thinking of a good way to end his sentence. "Do you recognize the cloak I am wearing?"

"Yes" I answered. "I have seen others like it in Italy. It must be a Volturi cloak."

"Precisely" he nodded. "Eventhough my body is perpetually frozen at the age of thirteen, I have been wearing exactly this cloak for over a millennia now with the greatest pride. As it marks me as a high-ranking member of the guard, my life has been easy and others respect me. I enjoy my life in Volterra, I always have. It has become a home to me over the centuries. I have worked hard to gain it, and without this cloak-" he made a dramatic pause, "Alec Volturi is nothing."

I nodded. "And how exactly does that relate to why you, Alec Volturi, have saved me from the Cullens?"

Alec smirked and gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek. "Because for you, Ruby Brown, I would personally tear this cloak to shreds, burn it to ashes and spit on its remains. It is fate."

What did he mean by that?

As if to emphasize his point, he took the expensive piece of black fabric from his shoulders then, wrapping it around my fragile body. "I love you."

Another fire errupted inside my body then, only that this one was of a pleasant kind, filling me to the brink with joy.

Alec's and my lips met for a short, satisfying moment, a moan of pleasure escaping my lips. If I had thought lying in his arms was the best feeling I had ever experienced, I could truly not having been more wrong. Being connected to Alec in this way was inexplicably perfect; it was as if our souls had connected along with our lips, morphing into one.

The kiss ended as unexpectantly and quickly as it had started, Alec pulling back at vampire speed. An amused smirk formed on his lips as he saw my confused expression.

"You wouldn't want us to hit a tree or else, would you?" He asked me. "Personally I wouldn't mind, but you are still so fragile and the Cullens _are_ on our heels..."

I nodded. "Where are you taking me, anyway?"

"Why, _home_ of course, unless you-" Alec abruptly stopped, coming to a halt in a small clearing and eyeing his surroundings suspiciously for several seconds. "Speaking of the devil..."

The sound of footsteps on wet forest ground could be heard from behind me and Alec slowly turned towards it, my heartbeats increasing speed by the second. What was happening? Who was it?

"Give her back" a dreadly familiar voice suddenly ordered.

Rosalie.

Something clicked inside my head then. Of course Carlisle and the three others had caught up with us— they had been in the forest before us after all, being hunting. And now it was Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie and Edward, four vampires, against Alec and me, one vampire and one... _probably_ still human.

It wouldn't be a fair fight.

"I will do no such thing," Alec sneered, baring his teeth. "I suggest you take your leave, Cullens. Ruby is under my personal protection."

"Let's see about that" Edward hissed, sprinting towards us in attack. The others followed instantaneously and I closed my eyes in fear, expecting agonized screams from either them or us any second now.

Only that they never came.

I opened my eyes again cautiously, not trusting my sight when I saw our opponents lying motionless on the ground.

"Sensory deprivation" Alec reminded me.

Oh. How _convenient_.

"What are you doing?" I demanded as he made his way towards the bodies, me still in his arms, eventually stopping before an inaminate version of Edward. "Why aren't we running away?"

He smiled a weary smile. "Because that, Ruby, would be outrunning the inevitable. The second Cullen group is only seconds away from us, and if I don't kill the first group now, I might never have the chance." Alec sighed, and I left his arms, now standing on the ground next to him.

"Don't look. I should take care of the bodies. You shouldn't have to see this..."

Not reacting to his warning quickly enough, I watched in terror as Alec ripped off the caramel haired boy's right arm. No blood oozed from the wound, there was only a loud _crack_!-ing sound and the limb was ripped off.

It wasn't even necessarily a cruel action, considering that Alec had numbed Edward first, but it was still quite a disturbing thing to see.

"Look away," he repeated in a monotone. I didn't need to be told twice and followed his order, directing my gaze off into the trees.

Another crack was heard (the other arm or the head this time?); I tried to tune it out, prepared for it this time. What I wasn't prepared for was the horrified scream that echoed through the meadow then. Its owner had seemingly appared out of nowhere.

"Edward!" Bella yelled, her knees suddenly giving in on her. Emmett caught her before she hit the dirty forest ground, thick tears streaming down her pale cheeks. "No, no... please..."

I had a bad feeling about this.

"How pleasant it is to see you again, Cullens!" Alec greeted sarcastically and I grabbed onto his arm for dear life. "One more step towards my mate and I will personally ignite the pile of your body parts."

_Mate_. I had no idea what it meant, yet I loved the way it sounded. I contently smiled at Alec, and he quickly returned the gesture.

Giving Bella a death stare, he added with a cheerful tone to his voice: "Just like I will with Edward's." Saying it, of course, he was blissfully unaware of what madness would pursue.

Looking back on this scene, it can at times be funny how life likes to show you how good it can hypothetically be, but then not only unexpectantly takes this perfect situation from you, but also leaves you in one even worse than what you started with, leaving you behind like a broke kid infront of a candy store. And in exactly this way, if I hadn't felt like crying, screaming, or killing myself (or all at once) in that exact moment, so would this have been.

Yet it wasn't.

Alec raised his hands towards the Cullens and Denalis, opaque black mist evaporating from it while the smirk on his lips grew and grew. It was headed straight towards them of course, travelling deadly quick and leaving our opponents with barely enough time to process their situation.

Hypothetically, that it was... it was then that the human Bella Swan closed her eyes in concentration, sealing Alec and mine's fate. For when she opened them again, both the black mist and the numbing of the burning pain that was coursing through my veins came to an abrupt end.

"Her shield!" Carlisle screamed happily from the other side. "Thank god! It must have expanded!"

I fell to the ground, the familiar agony burning me from the inside out again. It was if someone had poured gas onto my insides and lit them on fire, only that the pain was multiple times stronger than only few minutes ago. I cried out, my eyes shooting open in pain.

Alec was next to me in an instant, embracing me with his cold arms. I tried not to scream again, using all my willpower to prevent this from being any worse for Alec, as it was _already_ the worst for me, but in vain. I cried out, again and again, as the fire coarsed through my body. I silently hoped for death.

It was too much to handle; way, way, _way _too much for me.

_Bella, whatever you did, burn in hell_.

"Shh, shh" he coaxed. "It's alright, you can do this. You're strong. You can do this, for us."

I nodded slowly. "Y-yes... f-f-for...u-ss..." Another scream left my throat, as, in vain, I tried to yell the pain away.

"My Ruby" Alec replied, kissing me on the forehead. "I have to protect you now, I have to fight them. But I also have to leave you. You can do this. I will kill them all for putting you in this pain, I promise you."

And with that said, before I could respond, he was several meters away from me, lunging himself at the Cullens.

If not for the look of adoration and love in his eyes, I would have begged him to kill me.

Vladimir only rolled his eyes at the new challenge, his red eyes eyeing his opponent skeptically. "I _do_ so hate to hurt little children..."

Alec roared and hissed at the provocation, his jaw sinking into my kidnapper's arm and tearing it off. Vladimir yelled out in agony, but quickly caught himself. The malicious smile returned to his lips.

And I lay on the ground and screamed as the fire relentlessly soared through me.

It happened too quickly for my still human eyes to comprehend, then. Alec and someone else were fighting at vampire speed, a dangerous yet incredibly gracious dance above the ground. Gravity would take its toll once in a while, and both would drop onto the ground. The other Cullens pieced Edward back together in the meantime.

The next thing I knew, Jasper, Vladimir and Eleazar had Alec pinned to the ground. I cried out, not in agony but in surprise, and they presented me with possibly the most evil smile ever. Instantaneously, they were in front of me with my poor, poor Alec on the ground between them.

"Please!" I begged while the fire, phoenix-like, died and down and was hastily replaced with an even worse pain. "Don't... Alec... please..."

"I love you" Alec whispered, his eyes filled with sorrow and guilt, before everything turned silent. Another cracking sound was heard, and only seconds later my mate's head landed on the grass, eyes wide open.

And I swear, I wished I had just flown back home.

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	14. A Little Secret

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters or ideas, Stephenie Meyer does. I do however own Ruby Brown and her fellow humans.

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><p><strong>Chapter 13 — A Little Secret<strong>

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on the white leather sofa in the Cullen's piano room, the sun high above the trees outside of the window. I was feeling slightly dizzy, the world spinning all around me. The fire inside of my veins had all but disappeared, leaving me both relieved and worried at the same time. Relieved because the searing pain had vanished. Worried because it had been replaced by another pain.

I gulped when I felt it; it was as if my heart had been ripped out of my body, leaving me to bleed out. It was as if I had been mercilessly stabbed with a thousand boiling hot knives at the same place. It was experiencing dying over and over again, only that death would not allow me within its pain omitting arms.

In short, it was an experience almost as excruciating as being bitten by a vampire... _almost_.

I put my thoughts aside for a moment and stared down at my body in disbelief. Why wasn't I deadly pale? Why did I still feel pain? And, most importantly, if I was a vampire, why was I not thirsting for blood?

All of those questions, along with the realization that I had a big scar the form of a jaw on my lower right arm, led me to the conclusion that I was still human.

I shook my head fervently. I had felt the bite, felt the agony... How could it be possible that it had all been for nothing? Somebody must have stopped the process, I realized. And who else could have had a motive except of the good old Cullens...? The murderers of my beloved–

I cried out, clenching my chest as a new, more horrifying wave of pain sped through me. A beautiful face entered my mind, young and flawless and sorry written on it in bold letters. The malicious smile of the devils above him. The dreadful sound as a head was torn off its body, and the silence that ensued as it landed in the grass.

_You can do this. I will kill them all for putting you in this pain, I promise you._

"Why him?" I screamed with tears in my eyes, jumping up from the sofa and running around the small room. "Why kill a boy that saved a helpless girl? Why must he be dead while you just live on, pretending that nothing happened?"

I knew that they could hear me, but I truly could not care less. Let them hear it. Let the entire world hear it, for all I cared!

"Why him?!" I cried. "Why him, why not one of you vegetarian cowards? Why him and not one of you foul, murdering idiots!"

I stopped my rampage around the piano room, kicking an expensive-looking vase next to the window to pieces. "For heaven's sake, _why not me_?!"

I fell to the floor, crying and blindly throwing further insults towards the Cullens while the pain in my chest intensified.

"Ruby?" a kind voice I immediately identified as Alice's asked from behind the door after a while, a caring tone to it. "Do you need something...?"

"Go and crawl into a pit in the ground and _die_!"

Silence was her reply. "Is that a yes?" She finally responded, weighing every word as if she were in court.

"Leave!" I yelled. "The last thing I need is your company. I neither want nor need your pity!"

I was tired.

I was tired of crying.

I was tired of yelling.

I was tired of being sad.

I was tired of being alone.

I was tired of being angry.

I was tired of remembering.

I was tired of missing things.

I was tired of missing people.

I was tired of regretting.

I was tired of feeling naïve.

I was tired of feeling empty on the inside.

I was tired of the pain.

I was tired of wishing I could start all over.

I was tired of dreaming of a life I would never have.

I was tired of counting the hours until the end.

But most of all, I was tired of being tired.

I stood up, taking a quick look out of the window as I dried my tears. It was dark outside already, the outlines of the trees barely visible. A small part of me wondered how quickly time had passed, but another couldn't help but feel numb and passive.

_Alec_. Full Stop. The pain was gone, and in its stead had come something even worse. Apathy. Numbness. At least the pain had allowed me to feel something, let me know that I was in fact still alive. But now... I felt like if I was dead.

I wondered if, actually, I was.

Alec was gone. For a moment, he had brought my life had reached a flawless state. A small light inside my miserable life, violently quenched by my enemies.

_'I do so hate to hurt little children...'_ A familiar husky voice screamed inside my head, mocking me. A little child. Wasn't that exactly what I was? A small, foolish girl about to be killed by the cliché, evil monster?

Alec had sacrificed himself for me, eventhough the situation's outcome had been painfully obvious... he had looked a child, most certainly, eventhough he had done what most adults would only shy away from. It left me wondering what importance age really played in the great scheme of things.

Which inevitably made me wonder if such a scheme even existed.

Suddenly, the little piano room seemed too small to contain my thoughts. I needed freedom, space — and there was only one place where I could find it. And it was located right outside my window.

To my never ending surprise, the white door opened effortlessly as I pulled down the golden handle. A note, hand-written on expensive looking paper, had been put infront of it.

_Ruby-_

_considering that the battle will take place in less than twelve hours, feel free to wander about the house and the property as you wish. Suit yourself. Be aware, though, that if you try to run, we will find you. My family and I are hunting for the evening, but we will return by early morning._

_Carlisle._

Quite the gentleman, wasn't he, hiding the evident threat under a veil of fake leniency and politeness? I'd certainly never seen a more finely worded promise to repeat history in terms of '_shot during flight_'; then again, I'd never been kidnapped by vampires before.

_And you won't be around long enough for there to even be a chance of it happening again, _my subconscious hissed.

_Shut up_, I hissed back. _It's painfully obvious as it is_. And then I made my way out of the pettily decorated house, my bare feet loud on the wooden floor. I kicked a few random vases and sculptures on my way, enjoying the noise I was creating. Maybe my sanity had died along with Alec that day.

All I knew was that I really couldn't care less.

I had reached the main door in no time, throwing it open and walking towards the park-like garden. I shivered once I finally reached it, the memory of yesterday's events still very much alive in my mind. Alec... the black figure. He must have watched over me, waiting for a time to finally meet me in person between the safety of the trees.

And then Vladimir came along and ruined his plans, the vicious moron.

But then again, how had Alec known about my existence in the first place? I sighed in embarrassment when it hit me, something I had told Aro, Marcus and Caius once they had interrogated me about the tour in the throne room.

The picture of the beautiful boy.

They must have told him about me, I realized, blushing. And somehow, they must have found out about our connection, prompting Alec to search for me.

And now he was _dead_.

Dead. Dead, dead, dead. Dead boy and _dead girl_. What a match made in heaven.

I quickly exited the garden, entering the thick line of trees. It was quiet, dark here in the forest. I liked it. Far away, a bird sang a lonely song while I walked, disregarding the path. If they would go looking for me, I decided, they wouldn't expect me to risk losing my orientation. Which, _normally_, I definetely wouldn't; yet if you know you have only so and so much time left, it really changes your perspective.

The battle. Despite the many things I knew about it, there was only one thing that I was absolutely certain about: Bella and I would die. How, that was the true unknown for us. Draining? Crushing? Snapping? Choking? That would be the element of suspense for the day.

Maybe, just maybe, fate would allow me to see a Cullen lose their life before facing my own doom. In a way, it was my last wish; dying, but taking one with me. Seeing Amber again was another. After all those years, I was only hours away... only that ironically, I couldn't bring myself to be excited about it. I knew it would be a sad meeting. Of course, she would stand in for me... but of course, it would not be of any use. Amber would see me die, and that was certainly not a reason to be excited.

Maybe, though, I could spare her her sorrow. If I was to die tomorrow anyway, why should I not do what I could to make the situation worse for the Cullens and easier for the Volturi? To be or not to be. The answer was obvious, especially since I already_ felt_ as if I was dead.

The Cullens wouldn't have their captive to hypothetically exchange for their own human's life. The Volturi, speak Amber, would not have to see me die, which her mate, Aro, would be quite glad about, too. My parents wouldn't know either way. _Everything_ would be easier, and _nothing_ would change for me.

At least, I thought, this death would be less cruel. And maybe, just maybe, I would reunite with Alec again.

It was too easy.

I stepped out of the forest and onto a large stone area with a picturesque view of the midnight blue night sky. It was quiet, peaceful even. The bright light of a million dead stars illuminated the night, the sound of waves breaking several meters away from me hissing in my ears. A perfect place to leave the world behind.

I slowly walked to the end of the area, seizing every step and breath I took. Walk on; that was the only thing I was required to do. Walk up to the abyss and one step further. The only thing I was actually miserable about was that I truly would never see Amber again. Then again, it would certainly be easier for her this way. And that alone served as reason enough for me.

What a dramatic end to such a fateful journey...

Only seconds later, I could see the water infront of me. Involuntarily, I imagined myself jumping from the cliff and drowning from a bird's point of view, and a single tear of fear rolled down my cheeks. I was too young to die. I was only fourteen, after all. I had a family, a life, dreams, hopes...

"No" I whispered. "I have only hours left. It will be more peaceful, less painful this way. I must take the opportunity and allow myself this last kindness."

Yes, it must be true. I knew it was. Even if my body was too paralyzed to take this one last, fatal step...

And either way, I just couldn't bring myself to care.

"I'm sorry Amber" I said, louder this time. "But I'm coming, Alec."

"No!" a familiar voice screamed from behind me. Suddenly, two frail arms grabbed my back, pulling me away from the abyss.

"I don't want to live," I whispered in a monotone, my voice dripping with apathy. "Please, don't force me to live!"

But my savior showed no signs of mercy, not saying a word until we were a few hundred meters inside the forest. Then she turned around. And truthfully, who I saw was the last person I had expected to save me.

It was Bella.

"This will be our little secret" she whispered sadly before she dragged me back to the house in silence.

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	15. Counting The Hours

**Disclaimer**: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, and her only. No copyright infringement is intended, and I am not making any financial gain from this.

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><p>Chapter 15 - Counting The Hours<p>

**Ruby's POV**

Bella ushered me into the piano room the second we entered the safety of the mansion, locking the door behind me. There was no _why did you do it_, no _do want to talk about it_. Only silence. As desperately as I knew she tried to ignore it, Bella understood; both of us had only hours left. And living your last day, there was no time for polite conversations or good deeds.

The Cullens returned from their hunting trip several minutes later; I saw them leaving the forest, eyes deadly golden and clothes stenched with blood, from my usual spot on the floor. The house was filled with conversation for a few short moments, then silence spread.

The rest of the night passed as slowly as the hours that had proceeded my suicide attempt, quiet and eventless.

Morning eventually came, the last morning I would have the pleasure of experiencing. I had barely slept, dreams of pain and fire and agony and blood having taken pleasure in haunting me throughout the entire night. I sleepily dressed without taking one glance out of the window; there would be no use in knowing how many hours I still had left to count, after all. Once I finished, I didn't linger in the room for one second, opening the door which was no longer locked and making my way downstairs. I never looked back at the room that had served as my prison, smiling morbidly at the ironic thought that the loathsome room would endure longer than I would. Putting on a pokerface, I finally entered the open living room.

Everyone was assembled inside - the Cullens, Denalis and Vladimir, every single person except of the human girl sparkling in the sunlight. Bella herself sat on a white armchair, skin non-sparkling, hair reclined in a tidy ponytail, with Edward sitting right beside to her. She looked anxious to say in the least. And she was not the only one. I could not spot one person in the crowded room that didn't at least look worried, counting myself.

"Good morning, Ruby" Esme politely greeted me, an evidently forced smile on her lips. "Have a seat, we have reserved a place for you. Are you hungry?"

I shook my head, sitting down on a free spot beside Carlisle on one of the two sofas. "There really is no use, but thank you."

I knew that she understood completely. Esme gave me another forced smile and quietly retreated to the other free spot beside her husband. The second she sat down, it was as if the metaphorical ice was broken. Several conversations started at once, leaving me with only fragments to make out.

"I love you" I noticed Rosalie saying, planting a gentle kiss on Emmett's cheek. "I hope this will not be our last day together."

"The leaders are absolutely ruthless," one of the blonde Denali vampires meanwhile told her sisters. "In their eyes, purpose justifies everything."

"Bella's shield will make them powerless. We haven't worked on it all this time for nothing" commented another.

"What is the girl's power?" One vampire I recalled being named Jasper suddenly asked Eleazar. Girl - I was the youngest person in the room, and the only one young enough to be called a 'girl'. He must have meant me. I immediately listened up.

Sadly, the others must have noticed that Eleazar was about to reveal an important detail, too, instantaneously loudening their voices as if on cue. Making out even single words suddenly became a true challenge.

"Powerful" Eleazar mentioned at one point of the conversation. "Must...not know...Volturi...end..."

"_Ruby_!" Alice suddenly smilingly appeared out of nowhere, obviously trying to distract me. "Look at you. Let's get you dressed."

"I _am_ dressed."

She rolled her eyes, giving me a _you know what I mean _kind of look. "In the dirty dress you have had on since you came here. That's certainly not a fitting outfit for today's occasion!"

"A corpse neither wants, nor needs a special dress for its funeral, Alice" I said annoyedly.

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><p><strong>Jane's POV<strong>

The Mistress and I stood in a clearing in the woods, sparkling in the sunlight. Our eyes were as red as the blood of the victims we had relieved of their life assuring liquid mere hours ago, and therefore were the only coven members which did not engage in the last hunt before the final battle. Alec had still to meet with us at the chosen spot, and the Mistress's sister was currently held captive by the coven we would be killing in a matter of hours. The disappearance of our loved ones had our nerves quite literally hanging by a thread.

"Oh, my dearest Jane" Amber sighed, closing her eyes in concentration. "You will not believe what I have seen inside the mindreader's memories. It appears that his _human_ girlfriend" she emphasized it as if it were a swear word, "has told him that my little sister has..."

"What, my lady?" I asked.

"Call me by my first name, Jane, for the last time." She scolded me.

"Yes, Amber."

"Better." She smiled for a short second, then transformed back into her old, anxious self. "It appears that my sister has attempted to take her life."

I gasped. "Was she saved?"

"As I said, Jane, she _attempted_ to do it. Luckily, she was saved by the _human_ before she had the chance."

"Thank goodness" I replied, relieved for my friend. "Oh my. Something just came to me. Do you think her suicide attempt may have have had something to do with Alec's disappearance...?"

Amber fell gravely silent all of a sudden. Her silence terrified me. The Amber I knew was never silent. Never. This was not a good sign. "Jane" She finally responded in a whisper, "I hereby give you full permission to do whatever you want with the Cullens when the battle commences, as long as my sister stays safe."

I gulped. "What in God's name did they do to him?"

"He saved her, Jane. He... your brother... he sacrificed himself for Ruby."

"I-I...I..." I was too shocked to form a full sentence. It couldn't be. Not my kind, loving Alec... if only I could cry, I would be crying rivers now. My Alec. My hero. No, they couldn't have killed him. It was simply impossible. "I-is he... d-dead?" I finally managed to croak out.

Ever so slightly, the girl beside me shook her porcelain head.

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><p><strong>Ruby's POV<strong>

Turns out corpses _do_ need special dresses for their funeral.

I stood infront of the art noveau mirror in Alice's room, dressed in a black polka dot dress, my long brown hair straightened. Live every day as if it was your last, a wise man, I can't remember who exactly it was, once said. It only made sense in that way that Alice had wanted desperately to dress somebody up before the battle, however absurd that was.

And who was I to deny the wishes of a vampire, who could kill or at least seriously injure me in a millisecond?

"Are you quite finished, Alice?" I snarled. "This is ridiculous. I look like a porcelain doll. Do you want to make it any more obvious that I am completely at every vampire's mercy?"

She rolled her eyes. "You look just fine. And if I may say-" But she did not come any further. Silence filled the pettily decorated room for a second, then Alice's eyes widened in shock.

"Come" she said while dragging me down the stairs at vampire speed, completely ruining my hair which was now even messier than before. Before I knew it, we were back in the crowded living room.

"We have ten minutes" Alice whispered before everything turned into a madhouse.

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><p><em><strong>Author's Note<strong>: I apologize, again, for the short chapter. I normally try to have my chapters at least 3k words in length, but it just keeps getting harder and harder filling the pre-battle chapters. Then again, talking about battles, the actual, epic Cullen/Volturi battle will take place in the next chapter! So expect a veeeery long update..._

_Thank you to everybody for over 6000 views and 70 reviews! Please keep the reviews coming... ;)_


	16. Bad Blood

_Disclaimer_: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, and her only. I own only my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 15 — Bad Blood<strong>

The calm, slightly anxious atmosphere that had filled the room mere seconds ago had vanished instantaneously after Alice's announcement. Now, panicked cries erupted from every corner of the room. Couples kissed. Last words were spoken. Every man or vampire for himself.

From one second to the other, I had completely disappeared from importance, if not even from existence entirely in their eyes. It seemed as if everybody had carried some hidden truth within them that had desperately waited only to be shared in this one moment. Everybody, that was, except of me.

And so while the others said their hurried goodbyes, I simply stood there, wondering how long it could possibly hurt to be drained by vampires, among other, equally as merry topics.

I did not think of what I regretted, what I didn't regret, how I felt about leaving my parents or even Amber. I felt like it would happen anyway, and that thinking about it wouldn't help.

And either way, even if I'd wanted to worry, I simply _couldn't_.

"Ruby!" Rosalie suddenly pulled me from my thoughts, dragging me out of the grand living room much the way Heidi had done several days prior. I shuddered at the mere memory. "There you are. We need to go. _Now_."

She quickly sat me on her back, then made her way towards wherever it was we were going at vampire speed while the landscape turned into blurred lines around me.

I eventually closed my eyes while the blonde carried me, not thinking of anything at all in those last peaceful seconds. All I did was live, inhale and exhale, smell the sweet yet musky smell of the forest.

I was ready. I had been for a long time.

My entire life had led me to this moment.

Suddenly we came to an abrupt halt. I opened my eyes. We were standing within a small round clearing in the forest, surrounded by trees and bushes.

"They're here" Rosalie whispered to me, and that was when I saw them.

At the moment, eventhough they were nothing but a straight long black line along the horizon, coming closer at a threateningly slow tempo, one must have been blind to miss their obvious beauty. They were invincible. It was a fact as obvious from the way they walked, appeared and simply _were_ as the fact that I was among vampires.

It was more than simply obvious.

They had an aura to them as a group, the Volturi, that would make any enemy, no matter how superior, run for their lives in fear. They were graceful. Beautiful even. If only I hadn't been so numb, I would have certainly been overwhelmed by a sensation of pride that my sister was a part of them.

They had reached us in no time, and I smiled apathetically as the faces of the three masters appeared infront of me. There were maybe thirty other cloaked figures with them, pale and red-eyed.

Silence engulfed the clearing as they reached their final position a few meters infront of us, just the smallest hints of sadistic smiles on their lips. I scanned the row, trying to recognize a few. There was Heidi, Demetri, Felix... and a face so entirely unchanged and innocent that for a moment, an actually heartfelt smile appeared on my lips.

"Amber."

There she was, finally, after all those years. She stood to the far right, far from her husband, next to the little blonde vampire I had met at the castle. Long brown hair that grew lighter towards the end framed her delicate face, which was directed directly at me.

The eyes of a cunning, clever murderess gazed at me, yet kind and loving. I could tell she had missed me as much as I had her. Under pretty much any other circumstance, I would have been drowning in happy tears by now. There she was, alive and well. Undead but well.

If only I could care.

"_Don't_." Was Vladimir's quiet response. "Don't even think about making this any harder than it already is. Do you understand me?"

I did not reply, completely ignoring him. Instead, I scanned the long line of Volturi warriors further.

And there he was.

Before I even had time to think his name, my heart exploded with joy and relief, bombing the apathy, the numbness far away from me. I was vibrant with happiness. I could actually feel the pure, unfiltered joy flowing through me, and in that very moment, had anybody told me that I was indeed _glowing_ with happiness, I would have instantly believed them.

Suddenly, all the tears I could not cry during the last hours came rushing out. I was almost completely sure that my mascara was leaving black marks on my face, but I didn't mind. I smiled a smile so big that I felt as if my lips would rip apart from its magnitude.

I had hardly known Alec for more than a few minutes, yet simply by seeing him, he had given me back my will to live.

"Ruby," Alec smiled in recognition, beautiful and alive. I could not understand why he was indeed alive, but who was I to question such a perfect outcome.

"Alec," I replied, still crying. I must have looked a complete fool, but I still could not bring myself to stop. "You're alive!"

Next to Alec, I saw Marcus' face light up with joy, too.

"Carlisle" Aro exclaimed all of a sudden, stepping out of the Volturi line, and hence starting the battle. I froze.

_Oh god, _I thought as reality came back to me. _Alec's alive, and I'm about to be killed. And he's watching._

The tears of happiness turned to tears of true despair and desperation.

"It has been a long time."

_No, no, no. Not now. Please. Freeze! Everyone freeze! Freeze time!_

"Indeed" Carlisle agreed. "Although the circumstances of our meeting are not the most happy ones."

"Oh, but isn't that of your own making, Carlisle?" The ancient vampire sighed. "You do know why we are here, don't you? You have told a human of our existence, Cullen, and not only that. You have intentionally lied to us, not intending to change young Bella after all." He was livid.

"To top even that off, you have killed a member of my guard, Santiago, as he was politely trying to rid you of your problem," he stared at Bella, "over there. And only a few days ago..." the joyfulness had completely vanished from his tone by now, "...you have kidnapped my mate's human sister with the intention of swapping her life against your _problem_'s, prompting you to unfortunately dismember my dearest Alec."

"Alec was about to attack us." Edward justified their actions stiffly. "We did what we did in self-defense."

_Go to hell!_

"Don't you take the Volturi for a fool, boy!" Caius snarled, pure hate evident in his eyes. "My brother has read the boy's thoughts. He meant to take what was his, and you ripped him apart."

"Yet Ruby was not his to take" one of the blonde Denali vampires, possibly Kate, said. "She _was_, and _is_ staying with us willingly."

"The _hell_ I am!" I yelled.

Aro ignored his old acquaintance for a while, now focusing his entire attention on me. "I had almost forgotten, Cullen. You have not only nearly killed another guard, you have done so infront of his mate. You are lucky that Demetri was accompanying him, Cullens, or I would do what you have done to him on the spot."

_Demetri, I'm so, so sorry I hated you for feeding infront of me. If I get out of this alive, I owe you one. Big time._

"As if you dared" Vladimir challenged. Several growls were head from the Volturi formation, including the Master's.

"Do not test my willpower, Romanian" Marcus hissed. "Maybe the memory of your dead mate will serve as reminder enough of our strength to you."

"Silence!" Aro cried out. "I will not waste my time on the Romanian now. Or ever. Who I care about now is my mate's sister."

Vladimir and Jasper were immediately next to me, grabbing my arms strongly enough to make even the tiniest movements impossible. "The girl's ours!" Jasper responded darkly, eyeing Aro.

_They're going to rip me in two._

"Don't you dare, Cullen!" Alec screamed, hissing, rage evident in his face and posture. "Ruby is _mine_!"

_Yes. I'm yours._

"Silence!" Aro repeated. "This is a battlefield, not a playground. I wish to speak to Ruby, and so I will. Try and stop me if you wish. Be aware though that a battle would immediately ensue."

He had them with his threat, and they knew it. As the mahogany haired king had wished, silence spread. The Volturi were superior, and so Aro played this apparentness to his advantage.

"Ruby is the mate of a Volturi guard and possesses a valuable power. Alas, she has the right of becoming a part of the Guard, which gave you, the Cullens, no right to abduct her. She was _ours_ to handle. And now that things have turned out the way they have..."

"...what my husband means to say" Amber continued, "is that we would like to offer you a place within the Volturi."

And that moment, I swear, time momentarily stood still.

"You would have to be changed of course" she added.

My face light up with joy and surprise, imagining all the possibilities. A life with Amber. With Alec. "Yes!" I agreed instantaneously. "Of course! I-"

"No!" Emmett rudely interrupted me, suddenly grabbing my neck. I choked. His grip was too hard, and I was lacking air.

"Talk of rights on having her as much as you want, Volturi; _dibs_. She might not be ours, but she is in our possession. In other words, she is completely at our mercy." He tightened his grip, and I cried out in pain. "As you see, I mean business. Now, you do as I say and nobody will be harmed. Edward will now accompany Bella back to the house, and you will leave them alone. Then, I will escort Ruby to you. _There will be no battle._"

The little blonde vampire next to Amber erupted in laughter. "You're not even fooling yourself, Cullen."

Emmett smirked. "Try me."

With every second that passed, I could feel another area of my face growing numb while my vision grew dizzier and dizzier. He was utilizing just enough force to choke me while managing not to break my neck, and, truth be told, at the moment I would have rather chosen the broken neck over this torture. It hurt like hell, not as much as the fiery agony of a few days ago, but enough to have made me cry out if only I would have known how. If only...

Black spots began to appear in my vision.

"Leave her in peace!" Alec cried out. "Jane, _please_!

"Pain." The little blonde girl, Jane, focused on her target for a second, but was unable to cause the announced effect of torture. She was visibly blind with rage. "What is this sorcery? Why is my power inefficient?"

"Guess why" Bella replied, the smirk audible from the way she spoke. "Let's just say, I have been tuning my abilities."

_Bella, you f-cking bitch._

"The Volturi do not engage in deals with lawbreakers" Caius coldly stated. "I propose you let the girl free, or the consequences will be desastrous."

One after another, other senses started to fade, too. Hearing, Feeling... a little bit of the original stayed behind, but it was hardly worth mentioning. _I should have just jumped _was the last thing that entered my mind before empty threats turned into real life.

Suddenly and without warning, Amber stepped out of the line of cloaked warriors, hair flowing cliché heroine-like in the wind. Her crimson red eyes had turned raven black in fury.

"Don't you dare hurt my sister" she stated darkly, emphasizing it as if every word held a different threat. Several laughs were heard from the Cullens, but quickly died down when she ran towards me.

All hell broke loose then.

Alec of course instantly followed her, only centimeters behind her. It would have surely been a funny sight to anybody oblivious to their purpose, two about fourteen year-old pale teenagers running towards a bunch of older kids, and yet it was the exact opposite.

Aro desperately tried to hold his mate back, but in vain. Amber pushed him back, prompting him to fall onto the ground from the force. As soon as he had made his way on his feet again, he ran after her. Within milliseconds then, the entire Volturi guard and coven was on Aro's heels.

Things happened very quickly then. Too quickly. Emmett let go of me, that was the good news. I fell to the ground, never in my life having been so pleased to have access to a thing as trivial as air.

The bad news, of course, were overpowering in comparison. Within the blink of an eye, Bella was pushed towards me while the Denalis formed a circle around us two humans. The other Cullens stood between the Volturi and us, hoping to protect us, well aware that if their enemies had possession of us, their lifes would be forfeit.

A loud _crack!_-ing sound broke the ice, and Carlisle Cullen's head fell out of Demetri's hand, eyes wide open in terror and shock. It was followed straight by another, one that had poor naïve Bella next to me wailing out in agony.

"EDWARD!" She cried out, tears filling her eyes. My dear sister stared sadistically back at her, tearing her lover's head into little pieces. I smiled in appreciation.

_Volturi — 2, Cullens — 0._

A third body was dismembered, and all Volturi were still standing. It was Esme this time, Carlisle's wife. It had been a mercy, thinking about it. I had experienced living without a mate... death was truly a preferable option.

The Cullen side seemed to think differently, though. Hisses and growls filled the clearing, now fighting with even more energy put into their actions, certain that the Volturi would be losing as, due to Bella's gift, they were powerless. I shook my head in disbelief at their ignorance.

The Cullen numbers visibly decreased within the next seconds. Rosalie. Kate. Eleazar. Vladimir himself, killed by Heidi. I watched all of the executions with a combination of terror and fascination as they took place right before my eyes. They were quite entertaining to watch, even; like watching a soccer match when you were a fan of the winning team.

In a way, I was surprised by myself. I had never supported cruelty, had always covered my eyes and ears in horror movies... and now that it was happening in real life, I did not even whimper. I truly did have a sadistic side to me.

Meanwhile, Emmett and Felix danced around the clearing in a battle for a dominant position. They grew quicker and quicker, until there was nothing but pieces of Felix's black cloak I could make out as they battled at vampire speed. I watched intruigedly, eventhough there was nothing I could really see. I could not even really put my hand on who was actually winning. All I knew was that, eventually, an inanimate head fell onto the grass.

And for the first time during the battle, a Cullen had won.

Suddenly, between all the cries of pain and warnings, I made out a familiar voice and instinctively turned towards it. "_This is for my mate, Cullen_."

A high-pitched shriek followed as Alec pressed hard onto the neck of a familiar pixie figure, hastily followed by a loud crack. Alice. I smirked, again. I didn't know why. It just came to me. But maybe, just maybe, I had smirked too soon.

"Who do you think you are?" Jasper screamed at my mate in response, blind with fury. "I'll have your head for this, witch boy, and for reals this time. You're nothing but a pathetic little _boy_ without your gift."

A fight similar to the previous one commenced, only much shorter. Within instants, Jasper had Alec on the ground, foot on his neck. No, I thought. This could not be happening, not again.

And yet it was.

What happened then was near inexplicable. All I knew was that, from one moment to another, everything had changed while truly nothing had. A feeling of blind desperation was not only all of a sudden there, it filled me. And a loud, desperate scream escaped my lips.

It was as if somebody had pressed a 'pause' botton. Just like that, everything was silent, all was still and listened to my outburst. Absolutely nothing happened for several seconds; all there was was a human girl senselessly screaming out her rage. I eventually finished, and there was a short moment of complete, confused silence.

Then, all of a sudden, other screams were heard.

Jane smiled a sadistic smile at the other end of the clearing, making all remaining Cullens fall to the ground in pain while her child-like eyes lit up with satisfaction. Now I knew what Alec had meant by her torture.

It was an easy game for the Volturi now; somehow, they must have gotten their powers back. I was the only person on the Cullen side standing, surrounded by fallen warriors and soon-to-be ones. I sighed in relief as the full impact of realization hit me.

The battle was _over_.

And I was _alive_.

"_Amber,"_ I whispered, tears of happiness blurring my visions. I had put everything on the line and won. All those years, the hours of doubt, all regrets, suicidal thoughts and tears had not been for naught...

My sister was next to me in an instant, embracing me. "Ruby" she said, "You have no idea how happy it makes me that you are here with me now."

I smiled back at her. "This is surreal."

I flinched as Bella's agonized screams were audible in the background. Turning around, I saw that Caius was smirkingly drinking from a gaping wound in her neck, deliberately slowing. He even paused every once in a while for obvious reasons, and Bella would scream out in fiery agony.

"Don't look," Amber said.

But I did look. I was enjoying her pain, and in terror, I noticed the sadistic smile that had formed on my lips.

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><p><em>Read and Review.<em>


	17. Dearest Sister

_Disclaimer_: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, and her only. I own my original characters, however.

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><p><strong>Chapter 16 — Dearest Sister<strong>

"Ruby? Ruby! Are you awake?"

My eyes opened instantaneously at the mention of my name, a bright light suddenly irritating me. As my vision slowly adjusted to the unknown surrounding, I made out a long, narrow room with small windows on two somehow circular white walls. I was lying in the centre of it on a perfect square of a bed, wearing a long-sleeve black velvet dress, legs twitched towards the black-cloaked person next to me. I recognized her in milliseconds.

"Amber" I smiled, sitting up and scanning the room I was in further. The floor, contrarily to the walls, was a dark, elegant wood. The bed was the only piece of furniture in the room; there were not even curtains. A blue, cloudless sky stretched out endlessly behind the edgeless windows. "Where am I?"

She laughed, an honest laugh that sounded like bells.

"Why, dearest sister, I thought it was obvious. We are on the plane back to your new hometown. You have been unconscious for a few hours, and we didn't want to get a doctor. A few months prior and we would have called Carlisle, but..."

She sighed. "We have better things to do than piece a vampire back together out of his ashes. We are many things, but we are certainly not phoenixes."

"Why, what other things could you possibly have to do?" I teased. "I mean, except of scaring fourteen year-old runaways to death and tearing off the limbs of other vampires?"

Amber shook her head. "You know, that was just extremely bad luck. I mean, the Volturi next to _never_ kill more than one vampire a week. The kind of battle that you have just experienced happens in that kind of magnitude about once a millennium. Naturally, you are in it. _Human_, if I may add. And hence easily vulnerable. Do you even know what the chances of that were, especially with you _surviving_ it?"

"It was worth it" I commented. "I still can't believe I'm just... you know. Talking to you. You probably have no idea what happened in those years, but-"

"Well, as a matter of fact, I do, a bit," Amber interrupted. "How do I explain this... tell me, Ruby, how much do you know about vampire gifts?"

I shrugged. "Not much, I guess. I know that Alec can numb senses. Ar- err, your husband, possesses one that has to do with the hands, and Marcus has one too, but I don't know which one. Bella-" Amber hissed ever so quietly, "had a shield, she could block gifts. And Alice could see the future, or so I was told."

My sister nodded. "Good, you know quite a lot. When a human is turned into a vampire, some humans bring certain special abilities into their new life. It happens very seldomnly, though. You're probably asking yourself why I am telling you this. The answer is obviously simple: I possess one myself."

"Really?" I asked, eyes wide in awe. "What is it?"

Amber smiled. "Would you like me to show it to you?"

"On me?"

She shook her head. "We'll talk about you later, _cherry_. Let's take... Jane, for example?"

Before I could respond, Amber closed her eyes in concentration while turning towards the door behind me. Only seconds later, Jane sprinted into the room and sat down next to me; Amber did not look up.

"You are probably wondering what my gift is" Jane told me, holding my hand in her cold one. "Basically, I can take control over people's minds. One part of that includes that I can make them do whatever I want — it's like I am that person for a moment then." The petite blonde stopped talking, and Amber's eyes opened again to reveal their natural crimson color.

"What _on Earth_ was that?" real Jane demanded. "Oh. Didn't we agree that it was unfair to use our gifts on each other?"

"I do apologize for my actions, dear." Amber answered calmly. "I did what I did for educational purposes, though. How else was I to explain it to Ruby?"

"If you say so," Jane sighed in defeat. "I guess I just shouldn't be mad at you for too long. Please don't do it again, though."

"Of course" Amber assured her.

"Farewell then" the blond vampire said, and from one moment to another she was gone.

"That was really creepy, you know." I commented. "Amazing, but creepy."

"Yes, I _do_ guess I hear that a lot. Well, who cares. At least I'm not Jane when it comes to gifts, _that_ is creepy."

"Jane is gifted, too?"

Amber laughed. "Oh, you are so naïve, dearest sister. How do I say this... the Volturi do not waste their time with anything but the very best. It's either gifts or muscles. And it's not exactly hard to figure out which one it is for Jane."

She chuckled at her own joke. "She has the power of torture. Most excruciating pain you can imagine. Comparable to vampire venom, if not _worse_. You don't want to get on her bad side. I'm friends with her; Heidi, her and me have been friends since pretty much minute one, therefore she never gets that mad at me. People that aren't friends of her are scared of her, hence avoid her. Believe me, it isn't easy being Jane Volturi."

"She looks very much like Alec."

"That's because they're twins."

_Oh_.

"Don't worry yourself over those little details, Ruby. Jane is a very caring person, so there is nothing to honestly worry about in the first place." She sighed. "Anyways. Back to the matter at hand, shall we?"

I nodded, thankful for the topic change.

"The second part of my gift is that once I have gained control of a person's mind, I can see that person's entire past, present and future. That is why I partially know what happened to you during the last years; not from your mind, but from our parents' and some of your classmates'. If I may say, you weren't exactly popular with your fellow students."

"They weren't exactly my priority back then, as you surely have noticed."

"No" She agreed, sighing. "_I_ was..."

"I had a feeling you were alive, and I wouldn't give up hope. True, I sacrificed many things for my obsession, but I think the fact that I am now sitting here next to you speaks for itself. Do you recall what they nicknamed me at school?"

"_Dead girl_?" she demanded. "How mean the kids are these days. A very dramatically ironic nickname though, looking back. As if they had known what would happen."

"I doubt it" I smiled. "I'm sure they didn't even think about a reason for my behavior one second before deciding to victimize me. I find it rather hard to believe that they would even have taken the time to consider a possible outcome for my situation."

"Morons, all of them..." she trailed off. "If only I had known, I had come and killed their friends before giving them slow and painful deaths. I'd probably have taken Jane with me, too. They would have deserved it for sure; then again, luckily I was oblivious. Aro surely wouldn't have been too pleased with me."

"That is another matter I don't completely understand. If you possessed that marvellous gift the entire time, why didn't you see how much I suffered and sent me a letter or something similar? Did you purposely leave me in the belief that you were dead?"

Amber sighed sadly. "Yes and no. Yes, I did want you to believe I was dead. But no, I did not see it. To be perfectly honest, I didn't even look except once or twice, when curiosity got the better of me. That's how I know about _dead girl_. I thought it was some kind of joke, though, to be perfectly honest."

My jaw dropped. "But why?"

"I thought that if you thought I was dead, you would grow to accept it and live a happy, oblivious human life. How was I to know I would ever meet you again? I was in the belief that I had left my old life and everything that had belonged to it behind me, Ruby. It is only logical that I didn't remind myself of what I secretly missed by watching it passively from afar, isn't it?"

I nodded subduedly. "My mind is on your side — my feelings aren't. But yeah, I guess I do understand you. I would have very likely done the same, actually... but tell me, what happened when you set foot in Volterra for the first time? How did you..." I shuddered at the thought, "fall in love with Aro? And how on Earth does that relate to how Vladimir made you scream in terror when you called me eight years ago? I'm dying to know."

Amber smiled in response. "Such a curious sister I have there. Believe me, I'd love to tell you, too. It is only that my story is, let's say, not the kind to be told between leaving a plane and setting foot inside our home for the first time together. I fear it would be much too complex and long to be told now."

"I get it" I said disappointedly. "Once we have set foot inside our home, then?"

Amber shook her head. "I doubt that we will have much time to ourselves in those first moments, sister. I promise to tell you as soon as possible, though."

_Attention, passengers. We are now landing at Pisa International Airport. Please fasten your seatbelts and pack up your things. We hope you have enjoyed the flight._

"Stupid human pilot" Amber cursed. "As if we couldn't hear, see and feel the plane's height continually decreasing. Looks like he might be in for a guided tour — as I have said, we don't settle with anything but the very best. You would do well to remember that, dearest sister. It will save you a lot of trouble upon arrival."

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	18. Fire and Ice

_Disclaimer_: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, and her only. I however own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 17 - Fire And Ice<strong>

The plane landed at Pisa International Airport without further turbulences only minutes later; a genuine smile formed on my sister's pale lips in response, her hand cautiously hovering over mine as she helped me stand up from my place on the bed.

I trembled and almost fell when my feet came in contact with the ground — I had sat completely still on the bed for too long, conversing with my sister. Amber was next to me within the blink of an eye, helping me gain my balance.

"Welcome home, sister" she greeted, gesturing out of the small windows, once I was able to stand on my own. "We are only in Pisa, so we will need to attend the rest of the journey by car. Now come, I will help you walk. We are running late."

With that, she took my right arm in hers, resulting in us walking as if we were siamese twins. We received several skeptical looks as Amber opened the door, us walking into a bigger, longer room with several light couches and recliners now, but we looked the other way synchronically.

Most of the guard had already exited the private plane, anyway — only Alec, Jane and Aro were still waiting patiently while several other cloaked figures were on their way out into the open.

As soon as Alec spotted me, he was almost instantaneously by my side, and without further ado, he took me and pulled me into the heated kiss that, I, too, had been dying to give him since the very minute I found out that he was still alive.

I sank my head into his cropped brown hair, moaning as his hands roamed my back. His lips, although hard as stone, tasted like honey, and I felt my tongue at his lips, asking for access, before I thought better of it. Alec smiled joyously had my zeal, and I almost melted at the sight. Then, within the blink of an eye, he granted me access and our tongues were furiously fighting for dominance.

It was only the two of us in that moment, and if not for Aro's awkward comment, we could have carried on like this forever.

"Patience is a virtue, young ones," he stated. "Perhaps you should wait to continue your display of passion until you have reached your room."

I blushed madly, pulling back. Alec on the other hand smiled proudly, pulling me into a hug, refusing to let me out of his hands, and gave me a kiss on my forehead.

"I love you," he said.

"And we are all glad to hear so," Aro noted, "But the others are waiting for us."

I nodded in agreement. "Of course."

"We should not be wasting time," Amber nodded.

"Yes, Mistress" Jane and Alec said.

"It's good to be united with you again, my lady" he smiled, giving me an intense, passionate look I could not withdraw from as we made our way to the exit.

"After you, Ruby" he insisted when we reached it, and I gladly did as I was told. Jane walked silently behind us, and, the last to exit the plane, dragged the body of the hopefully simply unconscious pilot behind her. A cold shiver ran down my spine at the sight.

"Don't worry yourself over him" Alec told me, obviously having noticed my discomfort. "His fate is out of your hands. Just try and not end up like him, will you?"

I nodded hastily, almost robotically.

Eight glossy raven Aston Martins stood waiting on the airstrip of the private airport only meters away from the plane, the oblivious human drivers waiting beside their vehicles for our arrival. My jaw dropped in awe.

We quickly made our way down the small stairway that led to the airstrip, dividing ourselves into little groups and entering the cars in threes. Amber and Aro quickly disappeared into the first car without another word, Marcus in tow.

Jane, Alec and I on the other hand settled for the last void model, last in row. While my mate and I went ahead and sat down inside, Jane carried the human pilot to another vehicle. She was back only seconds later. Silence ruled over us before and after her arrival; it was only when the driver had pulled up our privacy window and we had started to drive that the blonde girl opened her rosebud mouth.

"I believe we have yet to be formally introduced" she said, glaring at me. "You may call me Jane. I am your mate's twin sister and your sister's best friend. I think we will get along just fine."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Jane" I replied politely, extending my hand to her. "I'm Ruby, but I guess you knew so already."

"That I did" she agreed. She took my hand then, her ice cold hand in mine. I shivered.

"Jane," Alec hissed. "Your touch is still cold and hence uncomfortable to her."

Her icy touch vanished instantaneously. "I apologize," Jane informed me. "I have not had the pleasure of a human's... _company_ for a rather long amount of time."

"Don't worry about it," I waved off. "Besides, I've had your kind treat me a thousand times worse than that. You didn't mean any bad with it."

Before I knew it, I felt Alec's protective arms around my waist. "Explain," he demanded. "I was there when Vladimir attacked you. Was there anything else?"

"I would be lying if I said there wasn't. Tht same vampire threw me into a wall once, to name only one example. But I don't think it wise to talk about that anymore — the Cullens are dead, and I am with you. There really is no use, is it?"

"No," he shook his head. Then he added: "Not if you don't think so."

We spent the rest of the car ride in comfortable silence.

The vehicle came to a permanent halt exactly one hour and ten minutes later, the chauffeur opening the door for me as I set foot on the Piazza dei Priori for the second time in eight days.

It was late afternoon already, the low sun bathing the small village in peaceful amber light. It all looked so entirely alike the cursed city of my memories that I momentarily lost all control over my body, involuntarily shuddering. I had experienced so much fear, panic and insecurity here only few days ago... how was I supposed to call this place my home now?

That moment, the answer appeared next to me.

"Ruby?" it asked cautiously, planting a gentle kiss on my neck. "Are you alright?"

I nodded offmindedly. "Would you mind terribly doing something for me, Alec?"

"Anything, my darling."

"Take my hand, please," I told him, "and don't let go until we are already several meters inside the castle." He shot me a questioning look, so I explained, "I'm not feeling too well. Don't worry, it's nothing serious; I just don't want to trip now on top of everything else."

No more questions were asked, and Alec's hand wrapped itself around mine instantly. I could do this, I told myself. As long as I had Alec at my side, I could and would do anything. With him, I felt invincible.

It was a cloudy day, and therefore we could take the front entrance instead of having to walk to the backside of the building without further complications. Several villagers eyed us skeptically, but none of the vampires seemed to mind that much. Dressing strangely alone was not reason enough to find out about the secret, and even if somebody were to lead any investigations concerning the Volturi... nobody would ever find their bodies. It was as simple as that.

Amber and Aro entered the castle first, the rest of us following promptly on their heels.

The corridors were just as I had remembered them; cold and dark, with uneven pieces of stone as a flooring. We walked quicker than the tourist group had moved, and passed the first portraits only seconds after setting foot in the centuries-old building. It was not long before I saw the painting that had saved my life, and a grateful smile formed on my lips as I walked past.

Unthinkable, the terrors that would have taken place if not for it. I would have joined the tourists in their demise, and eventhough I would have met both Alec and Amber again, I would have been traumatized and/brutally killed for good.

My wings, to say it in Caius's words, would have been broken. Yet I had been saved, saved by nothing but a canvas and paint... and an angelic face.

Alec let go of my hand then, and I felt uncomfortably unprotected and irrelevant all of a sudden again, just like eight days ago. It was different this time — I _knew_ that they would not hurt me, that I was safe — but at the same time it just wasn't, if I could put it that way.

The horror of my last visit was still very much alive in my memory, and it hid the entirety of today's gladness under its dark shadow. The shorter the distance to the throne room grew, the further Alec's hand was out of reach, panic filled me. _Not again_, my body screamed. My mind, my sense of logic remained calm; it was the rest of me that in this very moment wanted nothing but to run.

Alec must have noticed my anxiety, as he was by my side again instantly. "Ruby?" he asked. "Are you alright?"

About half of the other cloaked vampires turned around at us, and I allowed my head to slowly tilt towards the floor in embarassment. "I'm fine," I lied.

"I can hear your heartbeat, Ruby" he reminded me. "You're anything but fine. What is the matter?"

"It's nothing," I whispered. "Just some old memories. That's all."

Alec sighed. "Nobody will hurt you, my dearest Ruby. Don't fret, for you are safe here now. I can assure you that much."

We had reached the heavy wooden doors to the throne room then, two of the lower guards gracefully throwing them open to reveal a familiar circular room. Within the blink of an eye, Aro, Marcus and Caius's thrones were vacant, while all remaining vampires, including Amber and Alec, had formed two horizontal lines on the sides of the dome-like room.

From one moment to another, I was the only being left standing in the doorframe. Slowly walking into the middle, I felt my heart beeting like a drum in my chest. It was just like eight days ago; the only difference was that there was more of an audience. My unreasoned state of panic had reached a new high.

"My dearest friends and family" Aro exclaimed joyously once I had reached the middle, standing up from his throne, "it is with greatest pleasure that I hereby welcome Ruby Jasmyne Brown into the lines of the Volturi."

Silence spread for a short moment, thirty or-so pairs of crimson eyes lingering over my frail, panicked form.

"As Ruby will be a member of the guard shortly, it is now time for her to take her vow."

Vow? What vow? No. Yes. Which was it? I was too afraid of the power these creatures obtained over me to say for certain. I wanted to leave, but at the same time I couldn't wait to be like them. My mind and body were discordant, and as a result I suffered.

"Speak after me." the blonde brother stated in a monotone, remaining seated. There was the hint of a sadistic smile on his lips. "I, Ruby Brown, hereby vow..."

_"I, Ruby Brown, hereby vow..."_

"...to from now on and until eternity..."

_"...to from now on and until eternity..."_

"...serve the Coven of the Volturi..."

_"...serve the Coven of the Volturi..."_

"...and only this Coven."

_"...and only this Coven."_

"I also vow to protect the Coven and its laws with my life." Caius added boredly.

Was I actually ready to vow something like this? I had my doubts. I was only fourteen after all, nothing but a young woman... and with this vow taken, I could get myself killed in a matter of months. I had no experience in combat whatsoever, after all — I could not even protect myself, so how was I to protect an entire coven?

I had obviously quarrelled with myself for too long, because the next thing I knew Aro's voice pulled me from my thoughts. "Do not worry yourself too much about this matter, Ruby. You will be given a period of adjustment for a few weeks after your transformation until having to fulfill the vow, for one thing. And naturally, you will also receive several days of combat lessons. We are not gambling with your life, and we never will."

I sighed in relief. "Fine, then. _I also vow to protect the Coven and its laws with my life_."

The exact millisecond I had completed the sentence, a loud jubilation errupted around me; but ended as quickly as it had started when the third brother spoke up.

"You, Ruby, are now an _in spe_ member of the Volturi guard." Marcus announced, standing up and walking towards me at human pace. I tensed, in vain trying to hide my anxiety.

"You are very anxious" he commented once he stood infront of me. I flinched. "Don't be — there is no reason. We might not have been the best hosts upon your last visit, but we are practically family now. We have gone through a lot of trouble to bring you here, too; why would we want to hurt you now? Peace. Bury the old memories. We mean you no harm."

I nodded, ever so slowly. Suddenly, I was feeling relievingly calm.

"Good" He said. "This is for you." Marcus produced a black velvet box from under his cloak, opening it for me. Inside was a long, golden 'V' pendant.

"The Volturi pendant" he explained. "It marks you as one of us. Go on, put it on."

I did as I was told, taking the heavy necklace from its box and slowly putting it around my neck. Risking one short glance at Alec, I saw him smiling up at me, pride written on his face in bold letters.

"Well" Aro spoke up, "I see then that there is only one more matter that requires settling."

"Which would be...?" Marcus, who had by now returned to his usual state of apathy on the throne, trailed off.

"The girl's transformation, brother."

I froze.

"No," I whispered ever so quietly, petrified in horror. The unreasoned fear built up inside me again, this time not able to be coaxed by logic. This time, it was purely instinctual — the fear of not surviving, of the fiery hell of the change.

Nobody seemed to have heard me. "Let us get _that_ over with as soon as possible" Caius sneered. "At best insert the venom in her bloodstream before the sun rises."

"Wait!" I shouted, terrified. "Can we... can we not wait a little longer, perhaps? Until I am not in a child's body anymore?"

"_Dearest_ Ruby" Aro replied, smiling, "I fear what you wish for is impossible. Every single day that a human lives in this castle is, to say it frankly, a burden to us. We would need to assign guards solely to make sure other guards don't attack you. Once you are turned, you will be a true member of the guard. There is no reason for us to delay your transformation."

Cold sweat ran down my back by now, but I was too shocked to say anything anymore. They would do it — they would take my humanity tonight. With or without my consent.

"Who will do it, then?" Marcus asked.

"Hmm... I believe assigning the task to a trusted person of Ruby's will make it quite a lot easier for her. And looking at the girl, I think anything that soothes her now is of use." Aro stated, not once taking his eyes of me. "That leaves Amber and Alec."

"Let the girl decide" Marcus ordered. "It affects her, and only her."

Thirty pairs of crimson eyes rested upon me expectantly.

"I...I... I'm not quite sure..." I managed to croak out. Silence filled the throne room.

"I have a proposal" Amber eventually broke the silence. "Alec, Ruby and I retreat to Alec and Ruby's chambers for the evening, and do whatever she wishes to do together before being turned. Once she is ready, she will make her decision and we will abide by it."

"Do you favor Amber's proposal?" Aro demanded. I merely nodded, hoping to put a quick end to this morbid discussion. "It is settled then."

Both Amber and Alec were by my side instantly, presenting me with reassuring smiles."Dismissed!" Aro ordered, and before I knew it the heavy wooden doors closed behind the two cloaked figured and me. A sigh of relief escaped my lips.

"Where is your room?" I asked Alec once we had walked several meters.

"_Our_ room" he corrected me. "Everything that is mine is now yours as well. And it is only a minute or so away, my princess."

We walked the rest of the way without saying a word, only the sound of our footsteps audible. We took a turn to the left eventually, and then walked up an art nouveau staircase to the first floor. There, we stopped infront of the second door to the right.

"This is the hawk's wing" Amber explained. "There are five wings in total. The first is the hawk's wing, or in other words Aro's wing. The hawk is Aro's symbol on the Volturi crest. The most gifted of the gifted reside in this wing additionally to Aro and me. Then there is the ruby wing; Caius's. Quite ironic that you reside in this, and not his wing," she smiled.

"The ruby stone on the crest is Caius's symbol, representing blood. The second most gifted reside there. Marcus's wing is the oak's. It stands for eternity and continuity. The rest of the elite guard lives there. There are two more wings; the golden wing, were the entire rest of the guard resides and the throne room is located, and the official wing. You can guess what that wing is."

"I can," I agreed. "And I feel flattered to reside here."

"You should" Alec stated. "Now come, we should not spend the rest of the day on the corridor." And with that, the door opened.

I walked in first, awed by the room's beauty. It was gigantic, with spotless white walls and a dark wooden floor. The modern, kingsized bed marked the center, with the walls almost entirely covered up by light bookcases and antique paintings. A Renaissance secretary stood before one of the four floor-to-ceiling windows. To my right, there were two more doors. It seemed as if the area of the room knew no boundaries.

"Where do these doors go?" I asked curiously, for a moment forgetting all of my troubles and sorrows.

"The closet and bathroom" Alec responded. "I took myself the freedom to stock it up with some pieces for you."

"Thank you so much!" I thanked him, giving him a short, thankful kiss. "This is amazing!"

"Indeed it is" Amber said. "So, what do you want to do?"

From one second to another, my mood changed extremes; my sorrows and problems came back to me, crashing down on me and burrying me under their weight.

I sighed. "Honestly, I think that whatever we do, I won't really enjoy it."

"I'm sorry about that, my darling" Alec told me, taking my hands in his. "But you needn't be afraid. Both of us have good enough self control, and I will numb you so that you will not feel the agony."

"I guess it's just the memory of... _you know what_ haunting me. I still remember the pain so clearly..." I admitted. "And a transformation is something so permanent. I know I don't have another choice, but staying fourteen forever can't be too nice, either."

Amber nodded sadly. "It isn't — but then again, you receive immortality. An eternity to spend with your mate and your sister."

I smiled at the thought. "That does sound nice. But... still."

"I tell you what" Amber began, "Whoever does the deed, how about I stay here with you while the venom is spreading through your veins and tell you my story? We will surely have enough time, and it will keep you entertained."

"That would be wonderful" I told her. "To finally hear, after eight years of waiting..."

"I hope you don't feel so anxious anymore now, dear" Alec commented. "As I said, there is no reason. All you need to decide now is what to do, and who will do it afterwards."

I sighed. "Talking with you did help a little, but... I guess I'm still not going to enjoy myself very much. Let's... let's get this over with. It's not much of a choice anyway." Sounding surer of myself, I added: "_Right now_. And I want _both_ of you to do it."

"Are you sure, Ruby?" Amber demanded.

"No, but I'm pretty sure I'll never be completely sure."

"Very well then," Alec said. "Lie down."

_Oh god, _I thought_. Just the sound of that..._

I followed his orders, allowing myself to fall onto the bed. Again, my heartbeats grew quicker and quicker — yet of excitement and not anxiety this time. This was what was necessary to be with my sister and Alec forever... and Alec would take the pain away.

No, there was no reason to be afraid. Only _children_ were afraid. And I was no child anymore.

"I will numb you now" Alec informed me. "Don't fight the mist off — today it is your ally, not your enemy. I love you."

Black mist built up all around me instantly, moving forward with only one goal: me. Before long, the blackness engulfed me for a few terrifying seconds, only to disappear into nothing a moment later. He had only numbed my sense of feeling; I could still see, hear, taste and smell.

"We will bite down now," Amber announced. "Don't be afraid, it won't hurt."

They sat down on either side of the bed synchronically then, taking one of my arms each and pulling them up to their jaws. I froze for a second, realizing that I was blindly giving myself to two vampires, one of which I barely knew.

"Shh, Ruby, it's alright." Alec soothed me. "If you are scared, don't look."

And with that, before I had the chance to avert my gaze, the vampires bit down.

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><p><em>We build our castles high, turned our dreams to gold.<em>

_We took the blows with pride, went through it all._

_The dawn is closing in, new tales are told._

_This rhapsody of life, in a way, I guess we all know._

~ 'Covered By Roses', Within Temptation

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><p><em>Read and Review.<em>


	19. Amber

_Disclaimer_: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, and her only. My characters however belong to me.

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><p><strong>Chapter 18 — Amber<strong>

**.oOXOo.**

I sat on the left side of Alec's bed, silently eyeing my sister while her mate shot her both loving and worried glares. Total stillness engulfed us. Ruby's eyes were closed, her arms, obtaining one bite wound each, lying inanimately at the sides.

She looked blissful, peaceful even, as if she were having a pleasant dream while sleeping. The both of us knew better, though. She was neither sleeping nor blissful; momentarily, she was nothing but a numbed body in an in between state of humanity and vampirism, merely spared the torturing agony. And once her eyes would open again, she would find it impossible to sleep entirely.

I took a deep, unnecessary breath and turned towards Alec, the silent request obvious in my eyes. He nodded once in reply, a small smile forming on his rosebud lips. I gladly returned the gesture.

His irrational worry over Ruby's wellbeing was more than simply endearing to witness, and it lit up my heart as a thousand similar memories of Aro and me entered my mind. Today, for the first time, I would be able to share them all with my dear sister — the mere thought made me jump from excitement.

"I take it the time has come for me to share my story, then?" I rhetorically questioned, gaining Ruby's attention.

"Fine, for you will hear it now. Allow me to warn you, though: it is not a pleasurable story to hear, not the kind you listen to to forget your worries. Moreover, it is indeed the kind of tragic story that leaves you behind with more worries and problems than you would have had before. It would so seem that there is a happy end, yet even that is up for interpretation. Your time to hear it has come, but do not expect anything different than a tragedy."

Ruby did not reply in any way; not even a nod was visible. I did not think any bad of it, though; I myself had been more or less immobilized by Alec's gift during my own change. So, taking her hand in mine, I continued.

"It all began, as you might still remember, with an unexpected call... I had just arrived home in London for the summer holidays, some eight years ago. I still recall, you were wearing a pink sparkly dress and matching shoes that day, and it was inexplicably hot."

Alec chuckled. "We entered the house shortly after my arrival, and I hastily deserted you and our parents and ran into my own room. I was about to sleep when I received Phoebe's call. You know of course that Phoebe Evans was both my best and only friend at the time, us being connected by our passion for books since as early as elementary school. Naturally, I picked up. She informed me that she had won a local history competition, the main prize being a guided, two-week tour of Volterra and its surrounding cities."

I paused shortly. "I myself would only find this out much later, but of course the competition was a fake. I believed Phoebe because she always had had a knack for all things past, yet in reality, every single person who had participated had 'won'. The trick was that they attended their prizes one after another, none parallely. You are...surely aware of the ways the Volturi find their prey?"

Alec shot me an aggravated look, but I ignored him. "It's Heidi's reponsibility; she organizes these competitions as well as cooperations with all kinds of schools and companies all over the world. Sometimes the people are not even aware that they are in Italy..."

"Mistress, I believe you are scaring her." Alec interrupted me. "I do not mean to offend you, but if you would just listen to her heartbeat, you would notice how gradually it has increased."

He was right; her heart was beating at an unhealthy frequency.

"I apologize for that" I admitted, "But as this will affect her personally in just a few days I do not regret it. Continuing on, then..."

I sighed. "As you already know, I received permission from our parents and travelled to Volterra with Phoebe. What was odd was that Phoebe herself had not been told our final destination by the time we had reached the airport; we were only told after our arrival in Pisa by the guide, Luzi. But that is not of utter importance."

I took another breath, shortly and dramatically interrupting the narration. "We arrived in Volterra shortly after, and Luzi gave us the rest of the day to spend as we pleased. I bought you a doll in town that day, with your initials stitched onto its little pink dress. Did you ever receive that, by the way? I sent it the same day..."

Alec smiled politely. "Surely she has, Mistress."

"Oh, I thought we had left that behind us, Alec. It's _Amber_, not _Mistress_. Please."

"Yes, Amber."

"Good. Back to the story, though, and with no further interruptions. When I woke up the next morning, Phoebe was gone. I wrote her a text message and repeatedly tried to call her, but she would not answer. Roughly two hours later, I saw her on the local news. They'd found her in the forest, dead and bloodless."

"Perhaps I should narrate this part of the story, Amber, considering that I was directly involved?" Alec proposed, and I nodded in agreement.

"What had really happened your sister would only find out later on, Ruby, yet it probably would be a good idea to tell you this now as well. You see, for once in a hundred years Aro had decided to _leave_ the castle to hunt that day, and he had ordered me to come along for security. The girl, whose identity had been a mystery to us, had been lying on the forest ground to regain some energy. She had lost her way while jogging around the town. Aro ordered me away once he smelled her, and then..." he sighed. "You can guess the rest."

"I was..." I began, "Well, to be quite honest, I was in utter shock. I couldn't believe what had happened, failed to process it. And so the very next day I found myself unable to attend the tour, and sitting on the fountain in the town square instead. It was only minutes before Jane found me.

"Marcus had sent her to retrieve a book for him from the local bookshop, and on her way back she smelled me. It must have been very hard for her; from what I've heard, my blood was one of the best things she had ever smelled in her entire immortal life. She kept up appearances, though, knowing she could not have me in public. As a result she even came up to me and made small talk, casually inviting me to a tour. She quickly left though, and reported back to Marcus. Aro demanded her hand, seeing me.

"It was, as cliché as it is, love at first sight. The next day, Jane found me and invited me to a personal tour of the castle — I thought it rude to decline and came along. Once inside, Jane grew colder and colder towards me. I was afraid suddenly, very afraid, but at the same time too afraid to voice my concerns. Eventually we reached the throne room."

I sighed. "Aro was the first thing I noticed; he was the exact opposite of Jane, welcoming and pleasant to be with no matter the fact that I was scared. He immediately informed me about him and the Coven, and the fact that we were mates, which he had been told by Marcus.

"I'll spare you the petty details of what happened on the following day; I'm sure you'd prefer not hearing too much about your sister's love life. Summarizing it, we got used to each other rather quickly. Very, very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that Aro proposed to me within not even twenty-four hours of being acquainted to me. We had also already made plans for the transformation.

"It was perfect, Ruby, absolutely perfect. I was so carefree, so happy, so blissful. Never have I felt so complete as in those first few hours with Aro. Yet, as I have already previously mentioned, this is not a happy story. It is a tragedy, and our necessary periphery from happiness to misery was about to commence.

"The same day, a part of the guard returned with a total of twelve newborns from Germany; the father had been turned by accident, and upon learning of his new existence he had chosen to transform his entire family. Including himself, thirteen survived — four of these newborns under twelve years of age, the minimum age of a legal transformation.

"The thirteenth had hidden from the guard; a sly, spiteful girl by the name of Cora, gifted with the ability to hide scents. She ran away as far as she could, only stopping to hunt, until reaching Romania where she by chance met Vladimir and Stefan. You have met Vladimir; Stefan was killed by him several days after they met Cora. The Romanians had sworn revenge against the Volturi as we had annihilated their coven thousands of years ago, so they agreed to help Cora after she had mentioned blackly cloaked figures.

"And they did. They taught her about the castle, its location and its corridors. Of the guards, their gifts and strengths. They taught her to fight. They had stationed a spy in the castle at the time, and so they told her of my still human status. And so, only hours later, a red-haired newborn arrived in Volterra with the goal of killing me."

I sighed anxiously, turning towards Alec for permission. "Shall I continue?"

"Yes" he nodded. "She will know sooner or later anyway. We have time now, and she is surely interested to hear."

"Of course" I quickly agreed. "It is only that I have never needed to talk of this. I fear that I may be at loss for words when it comes to...certain parts."

"Amber," he answered, "this is your story to tell. Nobody will force you to talk about it, please be assured of that."

"It is fine," I waved him off. "Ruby wants to hear it, and so she shall."

Alec smiled back at me gratefully.

"Where was I again? Ah, yes. Cora arrived at the front entrance, asking for permission to enter. The two present guards led her through the corridors with the goal of reaching the throne room, but they never did. Cora dismembered them about halfway through, not burning the pieces. Then she picked up a human scent coming from the garden — me.

"You must know, Ruby, that Aro and I had had a little fallout only minutes prior; he had confessed having killed Phoebe. I was therefore in the gardens with Jane and Heidi at the time, as I needed a little time to think. Yet, both of my guards were not paying attention when Cora ran in. _Somebody," _I shot Alec a glare, "had distracted them, likely unwillingly though.

"From one second to another, I was flying; or at least I had thought so. In reality I had been lying in the arms of Cora, who was running as if she had burning coals beneath her feet. I quickly made peace with my life and decisions, expecting the worse, but luckily Aro and the others were able to capture her.

I was so glad that I'd forgiven him; what mattered was that I was with him again. Sadly though, Aro's presence was shortly after requested in the throne room again. I was left alone in our shared room, my mate's cellphone in hand, and decided to call my family to make up a lie so that they would not go looking for me as I would be a vampire soon.

"You surely recall that call, do you not, Ruby? How could one forget that... I was both delighted and horrified to hear your voice on the other line. Delighted to hear you again — horrified that I would have to lie to you of all possible family members. I planned to tell you some lie, tell you how I loved you and make you pass the phone to Mom or Dad. But that did not exactly work out.

"In the middle of my sentence, the door to Aro's and my chambers was kicked open, only to reveal a dismembered guard on the floor and two vampires with an evil glare in their eyes above him. One I recognized in an instant, Cora, the other took me a few seconds: it was Renata, a small, normally shy black-haired girl with the ability to create a weak mental shield. She was, or at least had been, a member of the Guard.

"They attacked me and I was thrown into a wall, losing my consciousness. When I awoke, all three of them, including Vladimir, stood menacingly over me, camcorder in hand."

I gulped, running my left hand nervously through my hair. "It continued on for about one and a half weeks. Whoever was available would torture me, and Vladimir and Cora would take turns recording it and sending the tapes to Aro. I would be given as good as no food and water, so I lost a terrible amount of weight. They would bite me and let the venom spread for a few hours, then sucked it back out and began again. They broke my bones, jumped ontop of me, cut me and made me spend the time in between in an entirely dark room.

"I almost lost my faith in Aro. _Almost_. Throughout the agony, I screamed his name, hoped that he would somehow miraculously rescue me. I played the one blissful day we had shared in my head over and over again to tune out the pain. I yelled how much I loved him when they recorded, hoping he would see it. The truth of course was that Aro had had the entire guard and coven searching the entire country, continent and planet for me, but with Cora's ability to cover scents and Renata's shield it was as good as impossible. And so nobody found me, while Aro kept watching the tapes in absolute horror.

"The fact that I was actually found is nothing but a miracle. Jane and Alec had been searching Italy, and while hunting one day Jane had, well... let's say 'met' a human farmer girl named Anna. Jane was about to drain her when she whispered something of 'only wanting to save her'.

"It turned out that this human girl had heard my screams while on a trip to the forest, and had now returned to rescue me. Jane killed her, followed her directions and found me lying inanimately infront of a bungalow in the middle of the woods, reeking of blood and gore and as good as dead. Vladimir and the others had gone out hunting as well.

"Alec carried me back and about half an hour later we entered the throne room, my face lighting up with joy as I saw Aro again. He saw me and lost no time; Alec numbed me, and, while carrying me to our chambers and saying something sentimental, _Vivamus atque Amemus_ (Let us live the way we love) I believe, he bit me."

I sighed. "They tracked down and killed Renata and Cora while I was turning, but Vladimir managed to escape."

Alec presented me with a reassuring nod.

"I spent the rest of these last eight years alongside my mate and best friends, Heidi and Jane. It was a good life, careless and similarly perfect to the first day. I made a deal with Aro on the first day of my new life, though; he would make sure that none of my family or acquaintances got harmed, and in return I would go on missions with the elite guard instead of idly sitting in our chambers all day. This deal was tested when you entered the castle — it is why Heidi acted so surprised at the mention of your name, why really everyone did. If you had not witnessed Demetri biting that tourist, you would be sitting at home now."

"The phone call, though" Alec mentioned. "Why was it as if it never happened?"

I grinned. "We are the Volturi, Alec, we have power over absolutely everything and everyone. The phone call needed to not have existed; we would have had to deal with the british police otherwise. We _could_ have dealt with that, yet it would have been unpleasant. So some guard member made some calls, and _snap!,_ it never took place. End of story."

Our conversation was suddenly interrupted when Ruby's heartbeat loudened and quickened, engulfing the entire wing in its erratic sound.

"It's almost over" Alec stated gladly, kissing his mate on the forehead. "You'll be such an intruiging immortal, my darling. I love you."

I instantly stood up. "I'll get Aro and the others." And with that, I exited Alec's chambers, heading for the throne room.

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	20. Despair

_Disclaimer_: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, and her only. I however own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 19 — Despair<strong>

Only moments after the door had closed after Amber, after Alec had reassuringly kissed me, after I had found the trivial reason for changing my life for the worse had been to prevent discomfort, after hearing of the terrible things Vladimir had done to my sister, after growing immobilized, after witnessing my mate's raven mist omit my senses a second time, my heart, perpetually and inevitably, stopped.

I could feel my sense of feeling and my ability to move returning back to me one after another fractions of seconds later, accompanied by a long longed for feeling of completion.

Only milliseconds after, the sound of a door opening followed by the one of five pairs of feet making their way towards me was audible. I waited patiently until Amber and the others had reached their final position, wondering who her followers might turn out to be. Then I opened my eyes.

My first reaction was shock; plain, neutral shock. Everything seemed so much clearer, more distinct. I could see the particles of dust dancing in the light that emerged from the windows, the million shades of crimson, ruby and raven in Amber's eyes, the irrational pattern the obviously human painter had created on the walls. There was nothing in the room I could not make out from my place on the bed — even the fine layer of dust over Alec's _Encyclopedia Britannica_ approximately nine meters away from me.

Aro, Caius, Marcus, Jane, Alec and Amber stood expectantly around me; the vampires that had seemed so utterly flawless and perfect in my human vision now showing small, barely visible yet existent imperfections. This is surreal, I thought. Nobody could permanently have such breathtakingly precise vision, or hearing in that matter.

My second reaction was awe. Inexplicable, unconditional awe.

"Ruby?" Alec's caring voice pulled me from my observations and back to reality. "Are you okay?"

I sat up to meet his eyes, surprised by the sudden new quickness my actions obtained. "I guess so" I smiled. "Shouldn't I be?"

The entire room errupted in subtle, amused laughter. "Why, of course you should be fine" Aro explained, seriousness in his eyes, "We are merely not accustomed to newborns who seem to be so...in control. All the newborns we have encountered so far have either instinctively preyed on the first human they could lay their hands on, usually the secretaries, or physically completed their mating bond in the first seconds of this life."

I blushed at the mere thought of the second option, but felt an agonizingly present pain in my throat build up as he talked. "I...I guess I am a bit of an exception then." I said quietly, trying to move my throat as little as possible while saying the words. "Can someone please tell me what on Earth that burn in my throat is?"

"That, my dear, is the only pain you will ever feel in this life" Amber said. "It indicates thirst, and it can only be quenched by blood. As a newborn vampire, your thirst will be stronger than other vampires', yet it will decrease to a normal amount after about two or three years."

I sighed. "I don't even know how to... you know. Hunt."

Smiling, Amber extended her hand towards me. "Come with me, and I'll show you. I will help you make the pain go away."

Instinctively, without requiring even the tiniest moment of reflection, I took my sister's hand and stood up. I was not sure if going with her would prove to be a good decision, yet I was at least going to try whatever she had in mind for me. If not for my sake, then for her's.

I nodded hastily, as if to convince myself, following my sister to the door while the others followed us in silence. I was aware that they expected me to snap any moment now, but I would not give them the satisfaction. Either way, I felt surprisingly calm momentarily — I would not allow them to convert this state of calmness into one of anxiety.

We quickly exited the Hawk's wing, running through the castle at vampire speed. The speed felt natural, normal even to me. It did not feel unusual either; rather contrarily, it almost felt as if I had been born with it.

The corridors no longer were cold and dark to me.

All of a sudden and without even the slightest warning, a scent, as desirable and sweet as ambrosia, hit me with full impact. Never in my entire life had I come across something so entirely tantalizing — no matter what it was, I had to have it. There was no doubt about it.

Within a single moment, my logic completely perished, leaving me with only my instincts to trust. As a result, within the blink of an eye, I had turned into an animal; and I was hunting for prey.

I noticed several smirks on the faces of my followers as I sped past them, but I ignored them. Let the fools have their satisfaction, I thought, as long as I receive my ambrosia.

It was not long before I had found the source of the breathtaking essence. Hastily throwing open the doors to the throne room, which seemed almost effortlessly easy to move now, I saw a young girl of about seven years and her maybe three years older brother sitting on the marble flooring, on exactly the same spot where I had stood during my trial several days ago.

I should have pitied them, felt sorry to end the lifes of such young, innocent beings. _Should have_. Instead, the bloodlust consumed me; and bloodlust knew no pity. Bloodlust knew hunger, sadism and an inexplicable feeling of power. Nothing else.

I sprinted towards the boy, completely ignoring his pleas for help and his sister's desperate cries. Grabbing him by the neck, I noticed that he had short black hair and unusually big, almond-shaped green eyes which were swollen and puffy from crying. He was pretty. If he had only not somehow found his way into these cursed halls, perhaps he would have turned out a handsome young man.

I shook my head. _No_. There was no point in thinking about his future — he possessed none. Within moments, his life would slip away from him between my teeth, and his sister would follow after him into the carefree realms of death. There was no other way; my thirst was unconditional, it knew no limitations.

I was just about to turn my thoughts into real life when his sister's plea reached my ears.

"Please" she whispered, tears in her eyes. "Don't hurt Isaac. He's a good boy. He'd never harm a fly...please, pretty girl. I love my brother so much...don't take him from me. Hurt _me_, if you must. Not him."

I froze in realization as I awoke, suddenly and harshly, from my almost dream-like trance of thirst.

"What is it, Ruby?" Amber's impatient voice demanded. I turned around, only to see her and the other vampires standing behind me. Her eyes, which had been loving and caring only moments ago, were now pitch black.

"Heidi has found these only for you. Go on. You need the nutrition."

I gulped at the mere thought of what she was implying, turning back around towards Isaac and his sister. "What is your name, girl?" I inquired, holding my breath.

"E-Eve" she answered. "W-will you h-hurt us?"

I took her and her brother in my arms, quickly drying their tears with my hand, before finally presenting them with my answer. "No. I will neither hurt you nor Isaac. You... you are safe."

I said it through clenched teeth, but I said nonetheless.

Several unbelieving gasps could be heard from behind me.

"This is surreal" Caius commented. "Can she _please_ just drain them?!"

"I agree" Aro replied. "This is highly unusual behavior."

"Ruby, what are you doing?" Alec asked, perplex.

"She must be joking." Jane said.

"Pretty girl," a young, innocent voice interrupted the vampires, "what are the other pretty people talking about?"

"Nothing, Eve" I said. "Don't you worry. You are safe with me."

"Enough with this," my sister suddenly spoke up, destroying the reassuring atmosphere I had tried to set up, her eyes glistening with determination. I gulped, turning around towards her.

"Ruby, come on. You are a newborn vampire, for God's sake. Just go on. Nobody is judging you. Just go on and drain them! This isn't a daycare center. I can see the thirst in your eyes."

"Vamp- _vampire_?" Isaac repeated. "A-are you saying th-that..."

"Shh, shh" I calmed them. "Calm down, both of you. Nobody'll hurt you."

"Your body needs blood, Ruby," Amber said. "Please, be reasonable."

I ignored her.

"Oh, please" Amber sighed, shaking her head in disbelief. "Fine then. I don't particularly feel like doing this either, but as your sister, let me assist you."

Sensing the malicious hint in her seemingly helpful reply, I protectively stood myself infront of the siblings as Amber walked towards me, as gracious and dangerous looking as ever.

She had an aura about her, my sister, that was so deadly that it would scare away even the bravest of vampires if she dared to show it. An aura that had formed, undoubtedly, as a result to years and years of murder as well as her own torture.

"Let me come near the children," she commanded once she stood infront of me, her eyes sparkling with sadness.

I shook my head. "_No_."

"Let me help you, Ruby." It sounded more like a command than a suggestion.

"I don't want your help."

"You need to feed!"

I hissed in response. "I don't _need_ to do anything."

"Quite the contrary, Ruby" Aro commented. "If I may say so, listen to your sister. Your body requires the blood to function. And these children are orphans; nobody will miss them."

"_I_ will."

Silence.

"Have it your way, then," Amber sighed. "At least nobody will be able to say I didn't try to ask you to move the nice way."

She closed her eyes. Two familiar, small figures stopped their original movements, standing completely still in unnatural poses in reaction. Amber had used her gift on Jane — and what was even worse, she was using my own _mate_ against me.

I did not even try to run as they suddenly and synchronizedly made their way towards me; Eve and Isaac would have been completely at their mercy then. And so, several milliseconds later, I had lost an unfair fight. Alec's and Jane's strong grip held me back as my sister made her way towards the siblings with a weary yet malificent smile on her once innocent face.

"P-pretty girl!" Eve stammered, tears returning to her eyes. "Don't let her hurt me!"

Completely ignoring her, Amber walked towards Isaac, effortlessly picking him up with one hand while proudly gesturing at her prisoner with the other. Eve hid under her long, black cloak, watching the scene unfold in terror.

"Release her," she artificially ordered, purely to show off her control, and the twins did as they were told. Before I had any time to react, Amber produced an elegant, silver knife out of her dress pocket, slowly dragging it along the inside of Isaac's right arm while the boy cried out in pain.

Nobody dared to move as the Masters watched in anticipation.

"Go on," Amber told me as thick, red blood oozed from the cut, "Please, Ruby. Don't make this difficult. Follow your instincts."

Holding my breath, I firmly shook my head in horror. A tired smile formed on her lips in reply. "Kill him or I will. He dies either way."

I continued to shake my head, disbelief written onto my face in bold letters. "No, I will not. And you won't either." I sighed. "Please, Amber, if you have any mercy..."

But it was too late. Amber's teeth pierced through Isaac's skin, eagerly drinking from the blood that streamed out of the wound until the boy's heartbeat grew fainter and fainter, quieter and quieter, and finally silent. Isaac was dead. Eve, too shocked to cover her eyes, watched in horror, but did not dare make a sound.

"Where is the girl?" Silence.

Instantaneously, Alec and Jane were at my sides again, holding me tight while Amber followed the sound of Eve's panicked heartbeat. She could just as well have not hidden; her heart acted as an obvious give-away. Alike Isaac, my sister harshly picked her up with one arm while keeping the other one vacant. The only visible difference was that the knife had disappeared back into its pocket.

"Ruby, please," she said, looking straight into my eyes, a caring tone in her voice. "I only want what's best for you. True, these may not be the most orthodox of methods...but still, it's trivial that you understand and accept what you have become. This is not only my nature, but yours now, too. Go on; _drink_."

She extended the arm that held the little girl towards me in anticipation, but I closed my eyes. "I will not kill," I told her, a confident tone to my voice.

"You are a _vampire_" she replied. "You chose to become a _vampire_. You knew what becoming a _vampire_ entailed. _Drain the girl._"

Eve desperately stared back at me, confident in all her despair that I would come up with a way to save her. She was asking the impossible; both of us knew. But, as an old saying said, hope dies last.

"I suggest you do as you are told" Caius aggravatedly said. "Your sister is fully correct concerning your status."

Still, a wavering statue of certainty, I remained to shake my head. The fire in my throat was unbearable by now. "I can't," I whispered, "I simply can't."

Amber nodded in response, eyeing the girl curiously. "We'll have to take more drastic measures, then," she announced.

And she bit down.

It wasn't like Isaacs' death; compared to this, his treatment had been all but gentle. Isaac's death had been sudden, almost painfree. Eve, and that was the only thing that seemed clear to me in that moment, was in fiery agony.

Amber had dropped her, allowed her to crash onto the marble, and where she had fallen the flooring now obtained slight cracks. Venom sped through her fragile system, and nobody was aiding her as her screams of pain filled the room.

"Have mercy on her," Amber said. "She will die now anyway; she would pass as an immortal child once turned, and so the only reasonable way about it would be execution. You might as well spare her the pain."

I gulped.

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	21. Contempt

_Disclaimer_: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, and her only. I however own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 20 — Contempt<strong>

"Go on," my long-lost sister encouraged me, pointing towards the writhing little girl that was screaming on the floor in agony. "Have mercy on the human."

Insecurely, I scanned the faces surrounding me for help. Somewhat expectedly though, I received none. The Masters eyed me with peaked interest, the guard too frightened to step in as after all a Master's wife had started this. Jane and Alec stood almost inanimately behind me, entirely at my sister's will. Alike Eve, whose desperate cries for help continued echoing through the throne room, I helplessly dropped to the floor at the sudden realization that I was alone with this.

What were my options with this? Allow Eve to change and inevitably get her killed, eventhough only indirectly? Allow Amber to bring in many others like her, only to repeat this torturous procedure endlessly until I finally surrendered? No, that could not be an option.

Kill Eve now and end her suffering? There was no other way, was there? The little girl's death seemed inevitable. If only I could have cried, rivers of tears would be streaming down my face now. How dare Amber put me in a situation like this? How _dare _she?

"Why are you doing this to me?" I demanded, my tone helpless. She smiled in reply.

"No, Ruby. Why are you doing this to _yourself_? Just do it. Please, cherry. Her life was forfeit the second she set foot in this room."

"You don't get to call me _cherry_ anymore."

An inexplicable feeling of contempt filled me at her words, additionally to the desire to simply throw myself at her and rip her cursed little head off. Remembering how I had thought of the Volturi as gracious when I had seen them on the battlefield, I shook my head in disbelief at my own naïvity.

I had wanted this, had I not? Had I not delivered the command to be a part of this Coven and turned into one of them myself? In a way, Amber was right. I had known what becoming a vampire would entail, had known of the true nature of the Volturi. The Cullens had warned me, and now they were dead.

And I was stuck with this.

If I was strong, I would try to use my gift and release the twins from my sister's control. I would run towards Eve and try to suck Amber's venom back out, like Carlisle had done to me. I would stand tall, not showing them the conflict that was arising inside of me. Or I would take Eve and run, hoping they would never find me and the soon-to-be immortal child.

But was I truly strong?

The truth hit me with full impact in that moment, and it was shattering. I would never obtain the bravery to stand up against my sister, or the Volturi entirely. My opponents were too powerful for that, and I knew it. The outcome of this situation would very likely determine the rest of my immortal life, and eternity was a long time to have the Volturi as one's enemy.

So, really, it was either Eve's or my life on the line.

"Eve," I whispered desperately, eyeing the little girl, "You tell me what to do."

Eve did not answer. Her high-pitched shrieks of pain continued to ring in my ears while she completely and utterly ignored me, only once presenting me with a hopeless glare. Her tiny body turned and twisted itself in an attempt to make the fire vanish, but for naught. This pain was more than she could handle, and her fight was hopeless.

There was only one way to help her now, as bizarre as it was.

Feeling numbly sure of the inevitability of my decision, I apathetically stood up then, slowly walking towards Eve. She did not even acknowledge my presence, the poor thing; the pain entirely overpowered her senses, leaving her at my mercy.

I tried to ignore the expectant stares of my audience as I cowered myself next to the girl.

"Hey there, Eve" I said sadly, trying to keep my voice as confident and trustworthy as possible for her sake while trying to ignore the burning pain in my throat. "I'm gonna make the pain go away now." I looked away. "I... I'm sorry. I really am."

All of a sudden, Eve's screams died down. She hid the pain for me, panic filling her big, emerald eyes. Tears were running down her face. "I- I d-d-don't wa-anna go, p-pretty girl" she whispered.

"But you will," I said. "And you'll go right to heaven."

A pregnant, expectant silence followed, and Eve closed her eyes in thought. Seconds later, she opened them again. Then, unexpectedly, she nodded.

"D-do it" She finally ordered me, her voice shaking. "T-take the p-pain away."

"You won't feel a thing."

As quickly as possible, I took Eve's warm hand into mine, hovering over wrist. I was about to finally take her life when I noticed her unnaturally quick, frightened heartbeat.

"Shh, shh" I said, hoping to be able to calm her down, caringly running my hand over her cheeks.

When she had calmed down for a moment, I bit down.

I evidently caught Eve by surprise, and an uncontrolled, agonized sound escaped her lips as my teeth pierced through her skin. I drank eagerly, thirstily feasting on the ambrosia I had so long desired, hoping this torture would be over as quickly as possible for her. Within seconds, her feeble attempts to fight me off died down.

And the blood was good. So, _so_ good.

I hastily wiped it of my lips when I was finished, standing up and eyeing the little girl one last time. She looked content, blissful even. As absurd as it was, I could not help bit envy her.

A weary smile on my lips, I turned around, only to see mixed emotions on the faces of the Volturi. I ignored them. Closing my eyes and focussing on my gift, I took Amber's manipulative mind control from Alec and Jane, confused expressions filling their faces as they were brought back to consciousness.

Then, without thinking, I took Alec's hand and bolted.

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	22. Opponents

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does. I however own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 21 — Opponents<strong>

I gasped in awe as I opened one of the windows in Alec's and my room, prismatic rays of light instantly reflecting off my skin, filling the room with bright colors. A smile errupting on my lips, I took in the sensation of the slight warmth on my arm.

If only Eve could have seen this, I thought guiltily. I could effortlessly imagine her angelic, childlike face lighting up at the sight — yet it never would. I had taken her life from her, taken away her chance at living entirely. Guilt filled me at the mere thought, and I was suddenly disgusted at myself for falling into my sister's trap.

If only I would have had Alec to talk to about my feelings now, but sadly he had left almost instantaneously after I had finished telling him what had happened in the throne room, trying to 'minimize the damage I had caused', as he had put it. And now I was alone.

Occupied by my thoughts, I closed the window again, making my way towards the gigantic bed. I quietly allowed myself to fall onto it, closing my eyes and forgetting about time entirely the instant I touched the fabric of the soft, expensive sheets.

I missed humanity, I thought. I missed unconsciousness, the ability to simply fall into it and be given a chance to forget what had happened priorly, if only for several short moments. I missed my bad logic, the option to have it as an excuse for everything when in company of vampires. Heck, I even missed the option to be killed by vampires — it was better than having to kill, if anything. Yet, it was too late: Eve and Isaac were dead. Indirectly and directly, I was responsible for their deaths.

How on Earth had I turned from the shy, bullied girl in school to this killer within naught but weeks? The mere thought seemed insane to me. This wasn't _me._ It was an evil mutation of Ruby, filled with poisonous venom instead of blood. And what was even worse — I had given in to her.

Mercilessly and inevitably, an unwanted thought entered my mind.

If I had known of the life that would have awaited me, would I have still gone looking for Amber?

I could not remain still anymore, suddenly filled by the desire to simply _do_ something.

Hastily changing myself into a knee-length black silk dress and adjusting my messy brown curls into a straight bun, I threw over one of Alec's black cloaks I had come across in his wardrobe and selected a pair of raven ballerinas from my own.

Glancing at my appearance in the mirror, what with the entirely black outfit and glistening crimson eyes, I looked almost like a carricature of what I had wanted to be only days prior.

Insecurity was written onto my face in bold letters, yet I decided to merely sigh it off and made my way towards the door as an idea came to me.

I changed my course at the last instant, remembering I would be required to write Alec a note.

_Dearest Alec—_

_in case you have returned and I am nowhere to be found in this room, do not worry about me. It is very likely that I am still in one piece and unharmed momentarily. I have just decided that it would maybe be a good idea to talk to Amber about this — so with my sister is where you'll find me in case of an emergency. I'll return as soon as possible._

_I love you._

_Ruby._

**.oOXOo.**

My hand hovered over the door, wavering, as if unsure of the command it had received. I took another unnessecary breath, hoping to calm myself, and forced my hand to finally make contact with the door, not allowing myself another uncertain thought.

Commotion commenced on the other end of the door instantaneously. A blanket was thrown aside; two synchronical figures stood up and quickly threw over pieces of fabric; one of them rushed towards the door, footsteps growing louder. Before long, the heavy wooden door was thrown open, only to reveal my darling sister in a long, black dressing gown, presenting me with an expectant glare, standing on the other side.

"Ruby!" she exclaimed in a merry tone, smiling. "What a surprise! Tell me, how can I be of assistance?"

"I... err..." I managed to croak out, insecurity slowly returning as I saw Aro himself making his way towards me in the background. "Well, I just.. wanted to say that I'm sorry about what happened earlier. Really. And I wanted to ask if... err... us two could just... talk?"

_Great, Ruby. Way to go for showing the vampire king and his mate your truly superior confidence._

Amber's eyes lit up in surprise at my request, but she managed to transform her true emotions into the usual controlled ones only milliseconds later. "Why, of course we could do that! What a good idea!" She turned around towards her mate, a begging look in her eyes.

"Aro?"

"Yes, my dear?"

"Would it be okay if I were to... leave you alone for a little while?"

Aro sighed disappointedly. "Of course, _cara_. I'll be expecting your return."

"Come on, then" Amber smiled, taking my hand in hers. Within fractions of a second, she closed the door behind us. "I doubt you'd want to have a conversation with my mate in the room, no?"

I shook my head in agreement.

"I thought so. Follow me, I know _just_ the place to go."

**.oOXOo.**

We arrived at the Volturi's observatory, a gigantic, square room with a ceiling made from glass located on the sixth and final floor, only seconds later. Amber had held my hand the entire way, and I hadn't dared to let go.

Now though, as the lights of a billion dead and living stars shone down on us, and I felt my jaw drop in awe, I was more than simply glad to have somebody to share this moment of silent amazement with me. The full moon presented us with light as we, still not daring to make a sound, afraid to destroy the perfect beauty that was this moment, made our way towards the middle of the observatory.

"I thought you might enjoy this" Amber broke the silence only moments later, having reached our final destination. "So, dearest sister, what it is that you wanted to converse with me about?"

"Well..." I began shyly, "I guess I just really wanted to talk about the incident in the throne room earlier on...?"

"Oh, _that_" Amber laughed, waving my attempt to make conversation off in a way so entirely blasé one could have thought I had mentioned the weather, and not the fact that she had made me kill a girl several hours ago. "Well, what _should_ I say about that? Maybe this will suffice: you're a vampire now, Ruby, and not a Cullen but a Volturi. And I suggest you become accustomed to that fact."

She let go of my hand.

"There's no need to become aggravated, Amber" I said. "I have accepted this future for myself the instant I learned the Cullens were not only my kidnappers, but also vampires. It's just the fact that I'd have to kill children that I was unaware of, and I do not see why that seemed to be a problem."

"Because you're a Volturi now, Ruby. The Volturi might be the obtainers of justice and secret admirers of the arts and sciences, but they also kill who and what they please. Including infants. And not for some sort of sadistic pleasure, as I'm sure you'll think, but because that is _who we are_. It is our _nature_. It is as natural for us as eating flesh Is for humans."

"And you just expected me to get used to that fact just like that...?"

Amber sighed, clearly unnerved. "Look, Ruby. I'm honestly not in the mood for this discussion right now."

"Just tell me this then..." I trailed off, "...why did you so brutally force me to kill Isaac and Eve when it was not your responsibility?"

She turned away from me, shaking her head fervently in agression. "You don't name your prey, Ruby."

"Just answer my question. Please."

"Because you had to feed!" she explained, shouting. "Is it that hard to understand? Newborns require blood. The human Heidi brought in for you just so happened to be children. You seemed unwilling to quench your thirst. I'm your biological sister. It seems only logical to me that I... _aided_ you."

She sighed."Someone obviously had to! It was just like when I was seven and had to spoon-feed you all over again. Do you think I _enjoyed_ that? No. I did it out love, Ruby, not out of pleasure."

"You call torturing little girls _aiding_?" I screamed back at her. "You call killing them _love_?There was _no_ need to put her in pain like that!"

"Well, of course there was!" she replied enragedly. "If not for your smallminded thought to protect your prey, I would have never even stepped in!"

"What? So now it's _my_ fault that they died the way they did?" I was entirely sure they could here us from every location in the castle by now.

"Yes. Logically!"

I sighed anxiously, hiding my face in between my fingers. "You've changed, Amber" I whispered. "I've tried to deny it, hide it from myself, but I can't deny it anymore. You're not the shy, lovable girl I was proud to call my sister anymore. You're another Amber now, and to be honest, I'm not sure wether I like the new you or not. I'm sorry."

Silence.

Silence, pregnant and accusing.

Silence everywhere.

"I used to be just like you, Ruby" Amber finally spoke up, her voice insecure, eyes gazing off into the void. "I used to be loving, caring, shy. A person that preferred the fictional world over reality. But most importantly, alike you, I used to be naïve."

Slowly, determinedly, she turned towards me. "I was fourteen too when it happened, you know. Back then I used to believe in the good within everything, not once allowing myself to think differently. I was the definition of naïve. Naïvely, I travelled to a foreign country, unsure of the exact destination yet hoping to spend a good time with my friend; naïvely, I denied myself the realization of tragedy once it had struck. In retrospect, I maintained my naïvity until the very end."

She chuckled, eyes still fixated upon a faraway point in the distance. "Naïvity is what connects us three; Phoebe, you and me. Naïvity was our death, our demise, our fatal mistake. Only that you and I were given a second chance at life while Phoebe wasn't." A weary smile formed on her lips. "Naïvity — a dead girl's demise."

Amber sighed. "I want to help you Ruby, I really do. But there's still naïvity in you, and there's the desire to live your life anarchistically to our rules. Let me tell you, they exist for a reason, and a good one at that. And I am who I am, you will not ever be able to change that. I'll never be that naïve Amber again, and I don't _want_ to be, in that matter. Can't you see how perfectly happy I am?"

"It's... it's just..." I said. "This is still so new for me, killing and... laws. And... and... you'll think me a weakling if I say this, but... I miss Mom and Dad. I hated them beforehand, but I ache for their company now."

"You are aware you'll never see them again, though?" She asked. "This may sound harsh, but if you wanted to be in their company _maybe you shouldn't have taken a flight to a foreign country without them, without telling them, entirely aware of what could happen_?"

"Yeah, probably," I agreed sarcastically. "It just bugs me that I'll never be able to know what Mom's present was now..."

"You mean the black one you left in your hotel room?" Amber demanded, her face lighting up. "Well.. the hotel belongs to us, so... we took ourselves the liberty to store your belongings for you."

"W-what?" I smiled surprisedly. "It's here somewhere? Oh, can I have it?"

Amber nodded. "I'll be right back." And with that, she was gone.

Excitement and anticipation filled me, my thoughts chasing around the topic of the ironic black wrapping's content. What object could obtain enough significance for my mother to call after me to open it only weeks ago, making '_Open Your Present_' the last words she would ever speak to me?

My sister returned instants later, rendering any further thoughts on this topic unnessecary.

It was still exactly how I had remembered it, a long, rectangular box of maybe 10 x 3,5 centimeters, wrapped entirely in half matte, half glittery black wrapping paper. I delighted at the faint smell of Mom that still covered it once Amber handed it over, and I wondered if it would be wise to open the present, alas destroying the smell, at all.

A second or two later, curiosity took over.

Under the thin layer of wrapping paper, which I had quickly torn apart, lay a long, slim box, raven black and entirely in satin. Again, my mind urged me not to open Pandora's box — eventhough, again, my childish desires took over. And truly, what I saw could not have surprised me more.

Inside, slighly sparkling in the moonlight, lay a long, silver necklace. And while this itself was nothing unusual, its pendant was both the most shocking and delightful thing I had ever seen; a portrait of Amber.

I instantly recognized the photo from which my sister's head had been cut out — an old picture of Amber singing a 5 year-old Ruby to sleep. Instantaneously, a memory hit me; I had found the Amber-less photograph once I had returned home from school for summer vacation, hidden behind a big picture frame, and had accused Mom of literally trying to cut her firstborn daughter from her life.

She had not replied to my accusations.

Why? That was the first thought that entered my mind. Why had she done this, and why hadn't she said anything about it?

"There's a letter" Amber whispered, unable to hide her surprise. Her innocent face looked even paler than before. Nodding, I took the folded piece of paper from its hiding place, hungrily reading my mother's words.

_Ruby-_

_you're probably wondering about the reason I'm giving you this necklace, and since I can't seem to have any kind of conversation with you anymore due to your obsession with hating me, I thought it'd probably be smarter to write it all down for you._

_You see, here's the thing: I love Amber. Always have, always will. I also love you, and, in a peculiar way, your Dad. But what you have to understand is that for a mother, to lose her child is the worst thing imaginable. And that's exactly what it was for me, if not worse._

_I'm sorry if I was a bad mother to you, Ruby, please believe me. But it was just all so hard, and so overwhelming, and I had to battle with myself daily to not just jump out of my bedroom window and leave all the f-cking shit behind._

_And yes, I'm swearing._

_Do you want to know the reason why I didn't, though? Because I thought, if I'm gone this'll be even worse for Ruby than it already is. And I can't do that. So I didn't._

_Do you know the five stages of loss? Momentarily I'm moping around somewhere between depression and acceptance, four and five, not that it matters. The first however is denial. That's what I was in when we were in Italy, looking for Amber. The second is anger. That's the stage I was in when you went back to school, and it is the reason this necklace is lying before you now._

_Yes. I admit it. I stand by it. I cut Amber's head out of the picture. It was a beautiful picture of you and her, and I felt like I should be realistic about it and cut her out. I was just so, so inexplicably angry with myself, with the world, with her for leaving me behind like that... It felt right at the moment, and afterwards, I felt like the worst person ever for it._

_I kept the head, though. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. I made up excuses for it during bargaining, which by the way, is stage three. Then came depression. Four. And I felt like I needed to have Amber with me at all times, so I couldn't forget her, even if I wanted to. That's all I could do, right? Not forget her. So I had it made into a pendant and wore it as a necklace._

_Then you came home from school seven months ago, and you were angry at me for giving up hope on her and being a bad mother. You loved her more than I did, Ruby, if that's even possible. So I came to a decision._

_Cherry, I know that you feel like I am trying to make you forget about her. You think that's what I do, when really I just have a different way of coping with it than you do. So I decided to give her to you. Literally. I realized that she was gone, but that you're here. So, here you go. My treasure. Your sister. Take good care of it._

_Please don't hate me anymore. I love you. Please take good care of yourself, and at least make an effort to be nice to me._

_So here it is, the truth. I'll put it right into your hands when you come home from school, and you can open it whenever you're ready. Until then._

_- Mom._

If I was still human, I would be crying rivers by now.

"What did she say?" Amber asked. I handed the letter to her in response, numbly staring at the image of my human, imperfect sister in my hand. There she was, caring, lovable, shy.

I loved her this way. She would only describe herself as weak in that state. Who was right?

"Ruby" Amber said, pulling me from my thoughts. "Don't be too sad. Mom always loved you. She'll understand that you needed to leave."

I nodded weakly, but failed to believe her.

_I was the worst daughter ever._

"Look, dearest. I'll need to get back to my husband soon, so let me just say this quickly and efficiently: you are my sister and I will care for you and protect you if you follow the rules. They're there for a reason. I'll be your friend, your shoulder to rest upon, whatever you need. But, coming back to the incident earlier on, one more thing like that and we are _opponents_. Choose your course wisely. And please, leave that naïvity behind you."

And with that, I was alone.

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><p><em>I know that we're both afraid<em>

_We both made the same mistakes_

_An open heart is an open wound to you_

_And in the wind of a heavy choice_

_Love has a quiet voice_

_Still your mind, now I'm yours to choose_

~ 'The Words', Christina Perri

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	23. The Thing About Strength

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does. I only own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 22 — The Thing About Strength<strong>

Sighing once and not looking back, I grabbed my mother's present and left the astronomy room. I wasn't necessarily running after Amber; at least that was what I told myself. The truth of course was much more complex — but if there was one thing I'd learned in the past weeks, then it was that a useful lie always remained preferrable to a harmful truth.

And so I told myself that I should be getting back to my mate eventhough I continued following Amber's smell, an unusual yet stunning combination of lavender and soil, trying to forget about my mother's words as they were eating at my insides worse than Louïs' ever could have.

As I walked down the dark and gloomy corridors, a small fire in my throat indicating newfound thirst, the horrors of the last weeks played infront of my inner eye. Flying to Volterra, misusing my father's trust. Almost being killed in the Volturi castle, only to receive a letter and be kidnapped mere hours later. The Cullens, Vladimir and Bella.

They were gone now, I thought. And I had delighted and smirked at their execution.

Travelling back to Volterra on my free will with Alec and Amber. Impulsively allowing the change to happen. Eve and Isaac.

I shook my head in disbelief. Shortly after my sister's disappearance, when I was a small girl, Mom had always told me that we are but the product of our decisions. I had rolled my eyes at the old saying back then, but only now, as a mutation of the Ruby Brown I used to be walked down the corridors of a vampire castle in Italy, did I finally recognize the wisdom within it.

In retrospect, I asked myself, which particular decision had led to this insanity? Had there been others alike it? And which decisions still remained alike the ones mortal, depressed, _dead girl_ Ruby would have made?

Impulsively, I made another decision. I would not walk after my sister.

I would talk to Alec.

Suddenly in a terrible hurry, running as if my legs had spontaneously caught fire, I entered the Hawk's wing and knocked on the door to Alec and my's room only milliseconds later. I could smell my mate's presence inside the room even before the door finally opened, revealing him, as the smell of burned firewood and morning dew reached my nose.

A hole I had not even realized had formed within me refilled itself; a feeling of rebirth spreading through me. By the time Alec was actually visible behind the threshold, I was all but overwhelmed by the exhilarating reactions of reuning with my mate.

"Ruby" he smiled kindly, without warning pulling me into a loving embrace as he saw me. "I've missed you."

"As I have you" I smiled back. "Can I come in?"

"Naturally" he immediately replied, and it seemed from his expression that he was unhappy with himself for not having thought of inviting me inside. "So," he said once we stood inside our room, the door falling into its lock. "How was your intermezzo with Amber?"

I sighed. "We talked about the incident earlier on," I said, and Alec's face filled with worry. "Don't worry; it wasn't that bad. I think. We just threw insults and arguments back and forth for a while, I guess."

"And?" Alec demanded. "What happened then?"

"Well... we had a bit of a falling out. You probably heard that. I think _everybody_ heard that. I said she'd changed, and for the worse. She grew all quiet then, only to say something sentimental and poetic about her dead friend Phoebe and me and her and something about naïvity. I more or less apologized and said that I was simply very homesick and wanted to know about my parents."

I took a deep breath before I continued. "And then she left and came back with this." I handed him my mother's present.

"Mom'd given it to me shortly before I'd left for my Dad's, but I never opened it and left it at the hotel when... when Vladimir came. And then we shortly talked about that."

Alec nodded understandingly, pulling me even closer into his embrace. "So you parted on good terms?"

"Kind of. She said something about us being opponents if I ever did something like that incident in the throne room again, and then she left for Aro."

"Halfways good terms, then" my mate noted. "That's good. I talked to the Masters, and they said exactly the same thing. You're more than welcome if you adjust, a soon-to-be enemy if not." He smiled a forced smile. "I suggest you stay with the first option."

"I'll do what I can," I agreed, leaving Alec's protective arms and sitting myself down onto the kingsize bed.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

And that could have been it. We could have left it at that, remaining in our positions for hours if not days, losing ourselves in each others eyes and the concept that we would have eternity to continue on in exactly the same way. We would have only ever stopped to feed, or to do whatever the Volturi do on missions.

And I would have fed dutifully, for Alec, still making it as peaceful for my victim as possible but never making a scene, and not once questioned my place within the Volturi. For Alec. And Amber and Jane and I would have grown the best of friends, and whenever Alec needed some alone-time we would have gone shopping or talked and gossiped. And in a century or two, people would look back on my feeding incident and smile, and say, 'She's been a little difficult at the very beginning, but hasn't she adjusted just perfectly?' And I would smile back and agree. For Alec. For us.

And it would have worked.

But that very moment, my mother's statement on decisions came back to my mind. And, realizing I longed desperately to talk to somebody about my situation, I indirectly decided right then that things would never be that easy and spoke up.

"Alec?"

"Yes?"

"Have you ever heard of the saying _We are naught but the product of our decisions_?"

He nodded, slowly walking over to me. "I believe I have heard that before."

"It's just..." I sighed, anxiety filling me once again. "Its scary. I try to think back on my life about a month ago, and I hardly remember anything. And what I do remember, it's... weird. I see how I am then and now, and out of nowhere, differences and parallels and paradoxes appear. I realize that, yes, I've changed."

I sighed. "But I can't say when, and how, and if for the better or worse. Or which particular decisions allowed my life to continue on like... this. And that's not even it all. I just... nothing is the way it used to be, Alec. My surroundings changed, and my personality, and my morals. It scares me."

Unexpectedly, Alec smiled. I would have expected a frown, a sigh, a moan of displeasure even — why on Earth was he smiling? Suddenly, for a single moment, the desire to scream at him built up inside me. "I wondered when your personality crisis would hit," he simply remarked. "It's been terribly much for you to handle, lately."

"What do you mean?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Every newly required member has a personality crisis at some point," Alec said. "Many things change, and that causes a conflict. To be quite honest, I'm impressed of how long you managed to hold this off."

I remained silent.

"Look," Alec began. "I think I understand you pretty well by now, Ruby. I think what's really killing you on the inside isn't your relationship to Amber anymore. Not as much as it used to be, anyways. I think its how you yourself have changed. And I think we should talk about that."

I still couldn't will myself to talk.

"Tell me, how _were_ you like a month ago?"

"Oblivious," I whispered. "Obsessed. By Amber, that is. I was usually referred to as _dead girl _because of it. Stubborn. When it came to Amber being alive, that was. Otherwise I was really shy. And... I _cared_ back then. I honestly cared. About what people thought of me, my parents thinking I was insane, my so called psychic disorder...caring, yes. I just tried to deny it from myself, I guess."

"Continuing on, then. Tell me now, and I want this answered honestly: how are you like today?"

I gulped.

"Quick," I answered. "And supernaturally pale and beautiful and gifted with heightened senses."

Alec presented me with a glare. "Apart from the usual vampire characteristics, obviously. I want you to tell me what makes you _unique_."

"I... well, I guess I'm skeptical now," I sighed. "I've learned not to trust absolutely everything. And I'm not as caring and shy anymore, at least when I am convinced that it is for the right purpose. Like earlier today, I pulled that off not as insecurely and frightened as I would have been a month ago. I'm thougher too, I guess. Not tough enough, but though. And I've found love, so I guess that must have changed me. So I suppose in a way, I feel fulfilled."

"So in summary," Alec reminded me, "Ruby _Brown_ was shy, obsessed, stubborn and caring. And Ruby Volturi currently is skeptical, halfways self-conscious and apathetic, tough given the circumstances and fulfilled. Does that sound correct?"

I nodded.

He quickly shook his head in disbelief. "This has nothing to do with your fatal decisions, but to be quite honest, I don't see why you even had an argument with Amber concerning naïvity. Well, maybe she's correct and you're still a tad naïve. But you're definetely not as naïve as you used to be. And, if I may say so without you getting entirely mad and furious, if I'd visited your sister eight years ago and asked her exactly the same questions a few days after having been changed, I think she'd have replied exactly the way you just did. Well, maybe without the obsession."

For the second time within a minute, I froze.

"Ruby, if I may be frank, I think you two are pretty much the same person." Alec told me. "Amber was simply tortured before being turned, which resulted in her feeding on humans without problems and her firm belief in the necessity of law. And she's been here a few years longer than you, explaining why she has adapted so gracefully to the Volturi's ways and lifestyle."

I didn't believe it. But then again, I simply couldn't. A week ago, an analysis like this would have brought me comfort, joy even. It would have given me motivation and strength to go on before the great and brutal battle.

Yet now, it felt like a verdict. If Amber and I were more or less the same person, wouldn't I be like her, dark and sadistic and the most unempathetic being to have ever existed, in eight years?

"It can't be," I whispered. "We can't be alike. She's entirely sadistic. True, she was tortured and that changed her, but I wouldn't doubt it for a second if I was told she was torturing her victims herself before killing them nowadays. We can't be alike."

"Ruby," Alec whispered caringly into my ear, suddenly next to me on the bed, pulling my head onto his chest. "You said yourself that you were tough a mere moment ago. Be tough now. Be strong. I know that you think surrendering to this reality means giving up all you are fighting for, but that's not true. When I was a child, back in the 1200's, shortly after my father died, my mother always told me that giving up doesn't make you weak — at times, it means you're strong enough to let go."

"I _can't_ let go," I whispered. "Don't you see? God knows that I've wanted to have my sister with me for the majority of my life, longed for her even. I'd have killed myself if only for her. But not anymore. Amber herself said I was naïve, and I was back then."

"Ruby, darling, listen to me," Alec said. "You've been so strong in fighting for what you thought was right your entire life. I love you for that. But you've grown so used to fighting that you can't see that you don't need to anymore. You can stop fighting now. You only need to accept that fact, and you'll be happy."

"I'm not strong," I managed to croak out. "I'm weak. I'm an endless assortment of paradoxes and traumas and flaws pressed into the form of a body. I'm only perfect on the outside, Alec. Inside I'm weak."

"Ruby, you've got to listen to me," my mate told me. "You've been strong since that very first summer day of 2006 when you received a call from your sister. You've never stopped being strong since then. You just don't know exactly how strong you are since being strong was the only choice you had."

As much as I willed myself to speak, I was unable to make a single sound escape my mouth. Instead, I searched comfort in Alec's arms, wrapping myself up like a soon to-be butterfly in its cocoon.

"Take it from me, Ruby" Alec said quietly, making sure only I could hear him. "The thing about strength — it comes from suffering. And you of all people have suffered, both of us know that. Don't deny it. As you've probably seen from this room, I've got myself quite an obsession with reading. I believe it was Ernest Hemingway himself who once said that The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."

He sighed. "Listen to me, my beautiful mate. You are strong. You have suffered. You have fought enough. All you've got left to do now is find the strength to let go."

I closed my eyes, once more seeking much-needed comfort in my mate's arms which he oh-so-willingly granted. Our lips touched, and for a moment, I felt fulfilled. But then the kiss ended, and as the thirst raced in my throat, I noticed that I still hadn't gotten an answer to my question.

But then I realized that I _never_ would. Because, through all the excuses and card deck metaphors I'd created for myself with the pure purpose of protecting myself, I'd never even allowed myself to acknowledge my own mistakes.

And now that I was immortal, they had vanished from my mind along with my humanity.

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	24. Tears In Heaven

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does. I merely own my original characters.

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><p><strong>Chapter 23 — Tears In Heaven<strong>

I don't remember how long exactly Alec and I lay there in the silence, solely staring into each other's eyes, losing ourselves in our thoughts. It could have been hours, days, weeks as much as I knew. All I knew was that without disturbance, I could have lived through Alec's both intense yet loving gaze without even the slightest of problems until the day life in its entirety would die out.

Eventually though, our perfect peace had had to be destroyed.

The sun had just gone up, filling the italian sky out of Alec's windows in calming shades of amber and crème and illuminating my mate's face in a prosecco-colored light, when we had heard the hasty, graceful steps from the corridor, slowly yet inevitably making their way towards our room. Without speaking a single word, synchronically the two of us got up, walking towards the door and opening it.

Outside, a devoted look on his sophisticated face, stood Demetri, a glimpse of meaninglessness hidden in his dark crimson eyes I had not yet located.

"The Masters have called me to retreive you," he told us boredly. "There is an urgent matter to be dealt with, and your presence is required in the the throne room instantly."

Alec quickly nodded, asking the one question that plagued the both of us. "Ruby and me?"

"Naturally," Demetri responded. "Come now. Let us not keep the Masters waiting."

My long-forgotten anxiety resurrected, hundreds of questions filling my mind as we made our way down the gloomy corridors towards the Gold wing once again, accompanied by the millions of possiblities of reasons the Masters could have called the both of us into the throne room and their likely outcomes, as well as questions regarding what exactly an 'urgent matter' at the Volturi castle was. Was it because of the feeding incident? Were they punishing me and making Alec watch, or the other way around? Had I done something else wrong entirely without noticing? And if so, what?

Running at vampire speed, we had reached the heavy wooden doors leading to the throne room in no time and my questions were answered.

"Alec! Ruby!" Aro greeted us the second we stepped over the threshold from his middle throne, seeming anxiously excited. "How comforting it is to see the two of you again."

"Hello, Master," I quickly responded, particularly eager not to displease. My politeness was rewarded by proud smirks from both Aro and Caius.

"Hello, my dear" Aro replied. "May I have your hand?"

Deep inside, I was afraid; the possibility that he would see something that would upset him haunted me. But, remembering my punishment the first time I had denied him, the sight of the dead bodies of people that once had been my friends, I overzealously nodded, stepping forward, holding out my hand. Aro was infront of me and took my hand in his within a flash, as usually closing his eyes in concentration.

For a moment or two, it seemed as if the world stood still. Then, as the ancient vampire's eyes opened again, presenting me with a smile instead of a deep frown, it finally resumed its old movements.

"It seems you are settling in rather well," he noted. "It seems that things are very hard for you right now, but both my wife and your mate have been indeed an _excellent_ help in making you accept your new life. True, you are still facing some rough decisions, but I do trust that you will choose correctly — do you not agree, brothers?"

Caius and Marcus hastily nodded their agreement.

"Good, good. Now that those formalities are settled, let me come to the reason I have had the both of you brought here."

Alec held my hand tightly in anticipation.

"There are newborns in Croatia," the vampire king explained. "We do not know who created them and for which purpose, but our research shows there are about five to eight of them and they have created panic and despair among the human population for a few weeks now. I am aware that Ruby has only been alike us for a day and a half now, but I am sending her, my wife, Jane and Demetri on a mission to destroy them."

My jaw dropped in surprise. He was sending me on a mission. Without Alec. From all the possible outcomes of this situation, this was the one I had least anticipated.

_Oh god_, it hit me. _They hadn't even given me training._

"My dear Alec," he said, "I trust that this is fine with you? The three of us originally planned to send you along as well, but then we realized that those four guard members would surely be fine by themselves. Besides, we need someone to secure the castle, do we not?"

The both of us knew that this explanation was nothing more than a bad excuse, made up to keep me from my mate and prove my utility and loyalty to the Volturi with my sister as a spy for the brothers in tow. It was as obvious as the fact that in the morning, the sun would rise. Still, Alec obediently nodded his approval; still, horrified as I was, I did not object.

"Splendid," Aro commented. "Alec, you may retreat to your quarters. Demetri, Ruby, do please wait until Amber and Jane join you."

With a quick, passionate kiss, Alec and I said our goodbyes. Only seconds later, he was gone.

"Another thing," Caius unexpectedly spoke up once my mate had left the room. A cold shiver ran down my spine — he was adressing me, not Demetri, I realized. And that could only mean bad things.

"Ruby, this may be your first mission. You have only recently changed, and you have not properly fed. Yet," he added with a smirk. "Still, we trust that you will utilize all your power, strength and intelligence to not only not hinder, but aid the group in locating and eventually disposing of the newborns. And they will be disposed of. That means no trying to save anybody who is not a Volturi, and no pulling stunts like yesterday. Do you understand?"

I nodded.

"Good. You may not be the bird surrounded by cats anymore, but that does not mean we cannot easily break you." I gulped.

Just then, the heavy doors reopened, revealing the two darkly cloaked feminine figures that were my sister and her best friend. It seemed as if the entire room froze at their presence; the brothers may have been the official rulers of the vampire world, but without any of those two, the Volturi were just an assortment of broken vampires, useless and inane. Everybody seemed to know that that moment, and so everybody showed according respect.

Including, for once at least, me. Truly, the last thing I needed was another incident like the feeding one merely twelve hours after.

"I see that everybody is already assembled," Amber spoke up, curiously eyeing the vampires in the room. "Good. That will make things a lot easier."

"Certainly" Aro instantly agreed. "Go now, my dears. You are expected to be back in a week. Be careful."

The four of us nodding in synchronization, we left the throne room, pulling the top parts of our cloaks protectively over our heads. We walked towards the exit in silence, only stopping to talk a mere meter or two from the tourist entry.

"Demetri, did you track them?" Jane asked then. "We'll need a direction to run to."

Demetri slowly nodded. "I've tried a little over five minutes ago. They were located near the small town of Rogozniča then, all eight of them."

"Where is that?" I demanded, embarassed of my poor geography skills.

"You wouldn't know," he reassured me. "It's a smalltown directly at the coast, living mainly of tourism. Within a fifty mile radius of Split, in case that gives you an idea."

I shook my head.

"Just follow my directions then," he politely smiled, apathy still evident in voice. "Don't worry, we won't lose you."

"Of course not," Amber said. "Ruby is every bit as essential to this mission as Jane or I am."

"Thanks," Demetri mocked her. "Either way, in case we run into the newborns before Rogozniča, we may have to develop a battle strategy."

"Absolutely," Jane nodded. "I was thinking maybe we travel in a V-formation at all times, with Ruby and I at the front since we're physically the smallest. They'll concentrate on us, and in the case of a battle Amber and Demetri, being our more experienced fighters, will have an advantage."

The vampires all nodded at that, including myself. I felt positively insecure at the fact that I had no idea what kind of strategy would be useful, or what formation in that matter, but decided that not gaining attention to myself would be wise. Despite making me feel useless, my 'strategy' seemed to be working.

"I think the question is wether we attack directly or seemingly indirectly," Amber mentioned. "If we choose directly, we'll have Jane torture them and attack while they're distracted by the agony. For seemingly indirectly I could manipulate their leader to surrender, hoping the others follow his example. If they don't, we can still attack them, and we won't seem responsible."

"I think we should decide impulsively," Demetri said. "We don't know them; we'll have to actually meet them before deciding which one would be more effective."

Feeling like contributing something to the discussion, I added: "Sounds good. And if they try to attack us with their own powers, I can always just cut those off."

Everybody seemed to be happy with that, and so, with no further words said, Jane threw open the door and we ran off into the day.

A mere month ago, the sole thought of travelling from Italy to Croatia by foot would have seemed perhaps insane, certainly suicidal to me. Yet, now that I was actually doing it, it was refreshing to say in the least. We ran through forests and deserted landscapes, over smaller mountains and across the Alps, Jane and I infront, Amber and Demetri following. Running against the wind provided us with comfortably cool air, and running or swimming through water was a welcome change. Once in a while, Demetri would shout a 'Right' or 'Left' at us, but apart from that, our journey was exhilaratingly silent.

About twenty minutes after we had started running, Jane stopped, causing the remaining three of us to stop and stand along with her. We were stood at the edge of a forest, a highway located under our feet, the ocean sparkling in azur directly behind it.

"We're about a hundred kilometers into Croatia already," she announced. "There'll be a battle commencing soon, and keeping up our strength would be smart. I suggest we hunt."

"What a marvellous idea, Jane" Amber agreed. "They may be newborns, but if we are recently fed we may even stand a physical chance against them."

"As long as we stay belong the radar," Demetri chimed in. "I'm in."

Amber smiled. "How about you, Ruby?"

_Yes, dearest sister, what about me? Will or won't I join in on you eating people?_

Of course it was a test. Without me with them, I knew, they would have surely never even stopped to hunt. Surely Aro had instructed some kind of awkward situation like this to arise, anticipating my failure. And in theory, my answer to Amber's question seemed strikingly simple. Of course I would hunt. For Alec. For Amber. For the sake of not getting on the Masters' bad side. And maybe even for my own good. What was it that Alec had said about strength yesterday? That sometimes, giving up didn't make you weak, but strong enough to let go?

What a finely worded way of convincing me to kill people.

Because this was were the theory ended; I drew a line at ending lifes. I knew it. The Masters knew it. Even Amber, Demetri and Jane knew it. Only the burning fire in my throat seemed to remain uninformed.

"Come on, Ruby" Amber coaxed. "If you feel uncomfortable, I'll help you. And not like last time. Or Jane'll help you, if you wish. Or Demetri. Come and feed with us."

_Feed_... What a tempting offer. The fire in my throat would vanish. The pressure on Ruby Volturi to prove herself would magically disappear. Alec would be pleased with me. Amber would be pleased with me. Aro would be pleased with me. Everybody would be pleased. I would make it painless, snap my victim's neck first, and its blood would fill my mouth, sweet, tempting ambrosia, hot and-

"Yes."

The words left my mouth before my brain had even the slightest chance to object, instinctively. Panic filled me as I realized the grave decision I had just made.

Amber beamed.

We retreated farther into the forest, following the mouthwatering scent of about a hundred human hearts beating in a smalltown nearby. There was a part of me, the Amber-like, sadistic Ruby Volturi, that longed to kill, to see the life leave her victim's eyes, drink its blood.

But there was another part, the logical, human part of my brain, shy old Ruby Brown, that was drowning in guilt and anxiety and panic and pure, animalistic fear. A part that prayed to God, entirely desperate, to stop this hell from happening. To save this lost, little girl from the consequences of her naïve decisions.

A part of me that was decreasing in importance the louder the heartbeats that came nearer and nearer to me grew.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Instantly, our group came to a halt, answering Ruby Brown's prayer. Turning around, a group of eight dark-haired newborns with almost unnaturally high cheekbones and thin lips, naïvely smirking, stood behind us.

Both Demetri and I anticipated either Amber or Jane's attack, yet it never came. Instead Jane, seemingly our new spokesperson, spoke up.

"Where we go and what we do there is none of your concern," she hissed. "Who are you? Who created you?"

"I believe that is none of your concern," a particularly tall newborn mocked, earning several laughs from his followers. "Now, if you would be so kind, we would like to hunt."

I could see the flash of anger in Jane's eyes, caused by the feeling of being ignored or mistaken for her physical appearance entirely. As a small, innocent smile lit up her angelic face, the tall newborn fell to the ground in pain. The others watched in silent fear and respect.

A second or two later, as Jane withdrew her power, she spoke up again. "My name is Jane and we come from the Volturi. You have hunted conspicuously and fervently revealed yourself to humans. Is that correct?"

Anxious not to earn one of Jane's feared smiles, the newborns nodded, unknowingly signing their own death certificates.

"Who created you?" Jane demanded. I noticed Amber's eyes closing in concentration behind me.

Seemingly their leader, it was again the tall newborn that spoke up. On closer inspection, he seemed to be missing several fingers. "Some newborn attacked me a few weeks ago," he said, eyes empty, voice passive. "He didn't totally drain me though, and I decided that loneliness'd be rather boring forever 'n ever, right? So I went and changed a few friends and acquaintances of mine."

"So you are responsible for the other seven?" I asked.

He answered in a monotone. "Yeah."

"Have you ever heard of the Volturi?" Jane demanded. "Or vampire law?"

In unison, every single one of them shook their head.

"The Volturi are the vampire lawmakers, you could say. We keep humans oblivious and vampires like you in line." Amber told them. "You have commited crimes, broken some of these laws, including hunting conspicuously, revealing yourselves to humans and, in case of your leader, not teaching your creations the law."

"I didn't know such a thing existed," the tall newborn justified himself.

"That does not matter," I said, hoping that such a sentence would earn me some metaphorical extra points. "We have come to enforce the law anyway."

"No!" a slender, female newborn, no older than Amber, Jane or I, intervened. "You cannot punish us for something we did not know."

"How old were you when you were turned?" Jane asked her.

"Eleven."

"...making you an immortal child," Amber explained. "Yet another offense."

"You have got to be kidding me," another man spoke up. "We live our life, everything exactly the same each day, nothing changing, nothing out of the usual happening. And one day, you wanna-be goths just show up here, tell us of some law we never heard of and that we broke it and want to punish us? I don't see the logic behind that."

I could see both in Amber's and Jane's eyes the desire to lunge themselves at them, to stop this pointless discussion entirely. And so, as I nodded my silent agreement at them, the three of us ran forward, Demetri shortly behind us.

I had never fought a battle. I had no offensive gift to rely on, no circle of vampires to protect me from harm for their own sake. I could as easily lose my life in this as the other newborns could lose theirs, and it frightened me.

Only that it never came to that.

A sadistic glare visible in the eyes of the eleven year-old, exactly two meters before reaching the group an invisible force threw us backwards, making us land roughly a little behind where we had started off. The little girl laughed madly.

"You didn't exactly expect us to be helpless, did you?" she snarled once her childlike laughter had died down. "I'm a physical shield, and Antonjo over there reads the mind. We know every single one of your steps before you make them."

"Marija," a small boy of about sixteen who must have been Antonjo cautioned. "The small girl-"

He never got to finish that sentence. Giving one last, slightly sadistic smile towards Antonjo to assure him he had been right in his judgement, I closed my eyes, focussing on the announced powers.

My eyes shot open at Marija's cry of desperation.

"My shield!" she screamed. "It's gone!" Turning to her leader, the little girl yelled, "Marco! Help me!"

Antonjo, pure helplessness in his eyes, seemed equally as terrified, eventhough he was more successful at hiding it. The giftless newborns drowned in panic.

The four of us giving each other one final reassuring nod, Jane's lips broke into a deadly smile as Amber, Demetri and I sped forward.

**.oOXOo.**

Several minutes later, I found myself sitting on the higher branches of a tree with Amber, watching from above as Demetri and Jane lit up the pile of bodies. Truthfully, it hadn't been much of a fight — while Jane had paralyzed the newborns with her fiery agony, Demetri, my sister and I had torn apart the bodies. The guilt of having murdered still filled me, but it was not as bad as after Eve's death. At least, or so I told myself, killing the newborns had saved more lifes than we had taken.

"I was positively surprised," Amber commented. "I hadn't expected you to be so... ruthless."

"It wasn't much of a choice," I replied. "I couldn't have walked out of that fight with my life if it would have come to a physical battle. I needed to be ruthless to survive."

We both heard Jane approach before we saw her, hindering Amber to respond. "Demetri and I are going hunting," she yelled, loud enough so that we could hear her but too quiet for it to audible for mortals. "Are you joining us?"

Looking over at my sister, I saw the thirst in her eyes, the desire, the need. I knew she wanted to feed. I knew she would drag me along with her, and that if she would, I would be forced to make a decision that would fill me with even more guilt. She and I both knew it. I sighed in defeat, forcing a smile for Amber.

"No, thank you Jane," Amber politely answered. My jaw dropped in surprise. "I just fed a day ago, so I will endure and spend some quality time with Ruby. Is that okay with you, Ruby?"

I numbly nodded.

"We will be back in half an hour, Mistress" Demetri noted.

"Take as long as you want," she replied. "And my name is Amber. You should know that by now."

Demetri and Jane instantly sped off towards the town, vanishing completely out of our sight in less than a second. Once I was entirely sure that they were out of hearing range, I spoke up.

"Why did you do that?"

Amber merely smiled in response. "Look, Ruby, I may not have seen you in close to eight years, I may be sadistic and dark and cunning, and I may speak like a copy of my three millennia old husband, but I am not entirely stupid. I know why you did exactly as you were expected to today. I know why you originally agreed to go hunting. You're scared, and you want to please. You're frightened that Alec and you will be separated if you don't do as you're told, or even more. And you think that I'll report your every move to my husband and the remaining brothers. Am I correct?"

I was not sure if answering would be such a good idea and remained silent.

"I'll take that as a yes," Amber noted. "But Ruby, I am not your enemy. When I was new to this life, I was insecure and eager to please just as you were. I was fourteen, and I was a vampire Mistress and queen. I'll let you know that it was more than simply terrifying and gruesome in the first years. Aro often found me close to a mental breakdown at night. I'd think about the torture, about Phoebe, about you. About naïvity. But despite all that, during the day, I'd put on my mask of happiness and be the perfect queen."

I gulped. "That sounds terrible."

She nodded, sighing. "So, really, I understand what you are going through. I see how this must be hard for you, how you feel pressured to instantly fit in perfectly. And I see how today must have been hard enough for you. That's why I did it."

To be perfectly honest, I was more than simply stunned. Who would have thought that my sister, the sadistic Amber Volturi, would have been able to commit such acts of kindness towards me?

"One thing, though" she added. "When we get back to the castle, expectedly tomorrow, how about you feed then. You're scaring the Masters with your attitude. Newborns never go without blood for long periods of time. When they do, they go insane and kill off entire villages at a time. So please, drain a person or two then. Okay?"

"I guess," I told her. "It's just.. I can kill vampires, Amber. They're not innocent. They've killed, all of them. But humans — they're mostly innocent. And I can't kill what I just used to be."

"Please." There was honest worry in her eyes. "You hardly drank anything yesterday. That little girl couldn't have passed as more than a snack for a grown vampire."

"I can't make that promise," I insisted. "Those vampires today? If I hadn't killed them, they would have killed me. But people? There's seven billion of them. I hardly even know the vast majority. I just can't kill them."

"Ruby" she interrupted me, looking me deep in the eyes. "There's one thing you have to understand. The people that Heidi brings in, they're doomed the second they agree to take a tour. She brings two more for you, every week, and if you don't feed on them, someone else will. Me, perhaps. Aro. Maybe even Alec. What I'm saying is, you're not saving anybody with your attitude. They die either way."

I closed my eyes and looked away. I couldn't take this.

"Ruby!" Amber called after me. "I'm aware you've heard so much about accepting things lately that you could probably just rip people's throats out when they talk to you about it. But, please, listen to me. This is the truth. This is reality. As terrible as it is, the truth is always preferable to lies, as useful and comforting as they are. It's that easy. Just make your peace with the truth."

"And how would you know?" I demanded. "I've spent eight years of my life believing I would find you, fighting for you. The useful lie that I would find you and that there would be a happily ever after maintained my hope, gave me motivation. And now that I've found you, you force me to kill children and tell me to let go so that I freewilledly do it again. I don't see how that truth should ever be preferrable."

She sighed, again. "How would I know?" she asked herself. "Truly, how would _I_ know... have I ever told you the story of my deceased friend, Phoebe Evans?"

I nodded shortly. "She invited you with her to Volterra and was killed by Aro."

"Yes," she agreed. "But that's not all."

"You know what I felt when Aro told me that he had killed her? I felt betrayed. Lied to. Meaningless. I hated myself for not protecting her. I hated Aro for being who he was. I threw my engagement ring at him, told him to take it and go and never come back. I hated the truth. I wished he'd kept up his appearances and lied to me."

"Perfectly understandable," I chimed in.

"That it might be," Amber replied. "But do you remember what events unfolded after Aro confronted me with reality? I was kidnapped, tortured, for eleven long days. They broke my bones, dehydrated me. They filmed it all and sent it to Aro. And they did other things." Giving me a pained look, Amber carefully removed the raven Mary-Jane shoe from her right foot. The second toe to the right was missing.

"I will not frighten you with any more details. You know the story, though. Alec and Jane found me on the forest ground on the eleventh day and brought me back to Volterra. Aro changed me there, we married, et cetera. So far so good. But I believe I've left out a bit of the real story."

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a moment, she continued. "I was on the edge of death when they found me. The majority of my bones had been broken, but I hadn't given up hope entirely and somehow, trying in vain to ignore the omnipresent pain, made it a few meters outside. I was unconscious when found. Do you know where I was with my mind then?"

I shook my head.

"I was with Phoebe."

Hundreds of questions occupied my mind, yet somehow none found the power to leave my lips.

"My human memories are very blurry, but I still remember this very clearly. I had just passed out on the forest ground, and I remember thinking 'I should have just ignored that damn call.' Then suddenly everything turned black, and from black to white; and while it did, slowly yet inevitably the feeling left my body, from the extremities of my limbs straight to my heart. I remember closing my eyes as once and for all, the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders."

"You died," I whispered. "You were dead."

She nodded. "When I reopened my eyes, everything was white and gray. I remember looking down at myself, only to find myself in this ridiculously long, stunning and angelic white dress. All my scars and wounds had disappeared, and I was not in pain and clean. It completely stunned me. Then I heard a sound, a quiet creak-ing in the distance, and ran towards it. You can imagine my surprise when I found Phoebe, dressed in a similar dress to mine, sitting on a swing set and smiling at me."

"What happened then?" I asked.

"She seemed as surprised to see me as I was to see her. At first she was happy to have company, yet eventually she grew panicked. 'So much depends on you surviving,' she told me. 'Aro is waiting for you. I cannot possibly keep you here.' I told her that I didn't want the pain anymore, that I was glad I was with her. But she only shook her head. Phoebe said, 'One of the dead girls will survive,' and she meant it. 'Go back,' she urged me. 'You cannot stay here. You are not welcome anymore. You have a purpose to fulfill, a life to live, a man to love.' The next I knew, I woke up and was staring into Aro's eyes. The rest is history."

"She saved your life," I commented. "She sacrificed her own needs for yours."

"Yes," my sister agreed. "Phoebe chose the right way. She always did. But that is not the point. The point is, I became a vampire and married Aro. And I was depressed for the first year, but I adjusted perfectly afterwards. Do you know why? Because, after that first year was over, I thought 'Phoebe didn't allow me to live so that I would spend eternity moping around.' And I forgave Aro and accepted everything there was to accept."

"So in a way, you did receive your happy ever after." I smiled.

"Exactly," she smiled back. "And you can do the same thing. Only that you have had the luck to have never been tortured and momentarily dead. You had a hard time, but you survived without problems. Now you just have to accept. Don't you ever say that a useful lie is preferrable to a harmful truth again. The useful lie was my life before Vladimir and Cora — the harmful truth the entirety of my life after. And yes, at the beginning it was worse than words could describe. I'm not denying it. But look at me now. I may not be your interpretation of a perfect sister, but I am happy and fulfilled. That's what counts."

I honestly did not know what to reply to that, remaining silent once more.

"You know what? Feed tomorrow. Spend the day after with me. We'll have some sister time, catch up a little, enjoy each other's company for a change. How about that?"

"I'd like that."

* * *

><p><em>I'll find my way<em>

_Through night and day_

_'Cause I know I just can't stay_

_Here in heaven_

- Eric Clapton, 'Tears In Heaven'

* * *

><p><em>Read and Review, please. *smiles*<em>


	25. Sweet Things

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does. I do however own my original characters.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 24 — Sweet Things<strong>

Demetri and Jane, bright crimson eyes glistening with satisfaction, had returned from their little hunt in the nearby village only moments later, informing us that they had hunted inconspicuously, having preyed solely on not-to-be missed individuals.

There had been little droplets of blood on their clothing, and the mere smell of the essence had given the relentless fire in my throat a new excuse to resume its torturing burning. But I had remembered Amber's words, her assurance that I would be able to feed recklessly in just a day's time. And I had done my best to ignore the pain.

Our little party had departed shortly after, once again following our tracker's directions, yet not travelling in a formation alike the way we had earlier. We had reached home, standing infront of the tourist entry to the ancient castle mere twelve minutes later. It had already been late at night, and not a single human had littered the town square.

A slender woman, presumably a secretary, had opened the gates for us, blonde, in her early twenties and dressed in a bright red cocktail dress. A name tag had classified her as _Adrianna_. I had felt my irises changing color, transforming into a determined raven black, yet once again utilized my remaining willpower to withstand the temptation.

Seconds later, we had finally reached the throne room. The Masters had shown themselves delighted to see us back as soon, and Aro in silence began taking our hands in his one after another, zealous for information. First Demetri, then Jane, then Amber and me. There had been disappointment in his eyes once he had let go of my hand, disappointment that, although well hidden, had clearly been directed towards his wife — my sister.

Momentarily, Alec beside me, the two of us silently sitting on the bed in our room, one must have been deaf or human entirely to have overheard the heated discussion that was going on between my sister and her ancient mate. I was completely certain that by now, the entire castle was listening in on the verbal fight of the two powerful mates — brought about, and centered around entirely by none other than me.

Alec, being the perfect mate that he was, held me tightly in his comfort bringing arms, patting my hand and whispering consoling words into my ear every once in a while. Not once did he ask what exactly had occured in Croatia; he had heard.

More accurately,_ everyone _had heard.

_"How dare you give your rebellious sister an excuse to defy her nature further? I saw her mind, cara. She wasn't entirely content with it, but she would have hunted with you. It was the perfect situation! Thirst paired with pressure and the desire to please."_

_"Will you calm down? Her not being content was -and is- my entire reasoning. If we forced her to feed when truly she wasn't content with it — she would hate herself forever. There is thirst within her, Aro. If only we give her some time to adjust and accept, allow her to enjoy herself..."_

_"Amber, darling, have you stopped to listen at yourself? She may be your sister, little one, but that does not give you the right to postpone a newborn's feeding! With every second she does not get blood in her system, the chance that she massacres Volterra becomes more and more probable."_

"Ruby," Alec whispered. "Don't listen to them."

I quietly shook my head. "I couldn't even if I wanted to. It's likely even the secretary is well informed about the situation by now."

_"Aro! Listen to me. Ruby will feed tomorrow. She promised it to me. She would never break that promise."_

"Never," I whispered weakly. Alec gave me a reassuring nod and kissed my forehead.

_"I don't have any time for this, Aro. I have things to organize; crucial things, as you will know with only a touch of my hand. If you will allow me, I will take my leave now."_

A loud noise several milliseconds later indicated that she had indeed left, too swiftly though for Aro to interfer.

"All will be well," Alec told me calmly. "You will feed tomorrow, and all will be over."

I sighed defeatedly.

A knock on the door interrupted us, announcing the entrance of indeed entirely unwanted visitors with deadly certainty. I did not even obtain enough time to stand before the door was roughly thrown open, revealing the mahogany haired king and his platinum blonde companion threateningly occupying the doorway.

Alec, his sense of duty awakened, immediately stood up. "Masters," he bowed politely. "May I ask why-"

"_Out_!" Caius hissed, his furied gaze directed at my mate. "This is between us and Ruby only."

A shiver of dread ran down my spine.

"Stand," Caius demanded coldly once Alec had finally left the room, hurrying off to God knew where. Nearly paralyzed with fear, I questionlessly followed my orders.

"Ruby _Volturi_," Aro began with an accusing, dangerous tone to his voice, emphasizing my new surname. "Would you like to explain to us why on Earth you have been acting like a childish imbecile ever since you got here? Truly, we would enjoy finally knowing."

"I apologize," I managed to defend myself, my voice unsteady and anything but confident. "I take it this is about feeding? I would have done it in Croatia, really. I was dreadfully depressed about it, but I would have killed."

"...you would have killed, _but Amber was hindering you?_" Aro finished my sentence, laughing madly.

"Is that what you were thinking? Are you honestly blaming Amber for this? If so, dearest Ruby, allow me to tell you this: no. _That_ is not how it works around here. My mate was feeling gracious. So? Is it her fault that you did not hunt? No. It was _yours_, and yours alone. Amber did naught but relieve you of the pressure you were under. There was at all times the possibility to go hunting relentlessly."

"...which you did not utilize," Caius finished.

"Amber is under no circumstances to blame," I agreed quickly. "Yes, the blame is mine. But it is mine because I finally felt positive feelings for Amber when I heard her offer, and because I wanted to spend the time Demetri and Jane were hunting with her."

Feeling a little headstrong, I added: "And, if I may add, when Amber suggested I go hunting tomorrow, I agreed without the smallest of doubts. My thoughts will be proof for this. There is no reason for you to worry, since in a few hours time, I will kill. I will feed."

My sister's mate did not even bother to ask as he sprinted forward, connecting our hands, skepticism in his crimson orbs before his eyes closed in concentration. I held my breath in anticipation.

"She means it," Aro concluded as his eyes threw open. "Her words are true. She is determined to feed, if only for Amber's sake."

"As long as she does," Caius sighed. "I will pardon you Ruby, the everlastingly foolish bird of the Volturi, one last time. You have until morning, until the final preparations have been made. And I promise you this: if you do not feed then, I will not only break your wings, I will break your every limb until you beg for death, and I will delight in your every scream and make your sister and mate watch helplessly."

"_Caius_," Aro warned his brother. "I believe that is quite enough."

"Simply making sure the bird understands." He smiled devilishly. "Now if you excuse me, I have criminals to execute." And with that, he disappeared into the neverending corridors of the poorly lit castle.

Aro's threat was not as terrifyingly worded as his brother's, yet it was still present. "I will see you tomorrow."

Milliseconds later, I was alone.

If only I been able to cry — I'd have cried about the upcoming feeding, about Alec being constantly pulled away from me, about Amber, and how she was stuck for eternity with a monster such as Aro for a mate. In that moment, there was truly nothing that I longed for more than the ability to cry.

And yet, as much as I longed for it, I did not obtain it. And so, with nothing better to do, I numbly stared out of the window, thinking about and contemplating everything and nothing, and waited for my mate to return, hold me in his reassuring arms and tell me that everything would be fine.

But he did not come.

Evening turned into night, night turned into morning outside of the window I had stood myself before. With a dreadful epiphany, I knew my time had come and panic once again took control over me. So much depended on my upcoming actions... and yet I was painfully aware that I could not do what was asked of me.

Exactly seven minutes after dawn, another knock was heard on my door — this time, though, the person behind it possessed enough politeness to wait for me to open it. Quickly throwing over my cloak and readjusting the golden pendant on my chest, I rushed towards it door, opening it with one swift motion.

On the other side, sparkling dimly in the morning sun, stood Amber.

There were no words, no explanations needed. Synchronically, we fell into each other's arms, and Amber's sweet yet pleasant smell filled my mind, obliterating the blind panic. For a fraction of a moment, I felt hope. And, as horrifying as it was, I knew that moment I would have left behind my loving parents a thousand times if only to experience this embrace, this unexpected hope, this moment once more.

"It's time, Ruby" she said softly, not once breaking eye contact as she pulled away from our embrace.

I closed my eyes, taking one last, deep breath. As my eyes re-opened, I hastily nodded and the two of us slowly yet inevitably walked towards our destination.

"You don't have to worry, Ruby" Amber told me. "Heidi, the vampire that gathers our prey, she and I are good friends. And so... well, I did what I could. Do you remember yesterday, the two of us sitting on that branch in Croatia, when you told me that you thought humans were innocent and you could not kill beings that did you no bad?"

I nodded.

"You won't have a problem then."

Mere seconds later, when we had reached the heavy wooden doors to the throne room, one last time, my sister's arms embraced my frail body. "You can thank me later," she smiled, waiting for me to smile back at her before she finally threw open the doors.

Instantly, the familiar scents of familiar bodies hit me and I knew, just as Amber had said, that these humans were neither unknown nor innocent.

There were three of them, no older than me or Amber, rushed into the exact center of the room to stand directly beneath the dome. Their blood called out to me like a siren, and I instantly felt my throat on fire in desire.

Two of them were female; one on the left, one on the right. The left girl, grey-eyed and straight blonde hair cut into a bob, turned around towards me first, her eyes, weary with mascara, threatening to fall out of their sockets in terror.

"_Dead girl,_" she whispered.

I smirked, not responding and continuing my calm, victorious walk towards the small group of teenagers. The pain was blinding, but it was worth it. By now, the right girl and the boy were staring at me as if they were seeing a corpse out of a particularly scary horror movie come to life.

"Alexis," the right girl demanded insecurely, going through her long, brunette curls with her fingers anxiously. "What...?"

"Shut up, Marlena" the boy, brown irises surrounded by a pool of tears, snarled. His heart was beating by far the fastest; pumping sweet, tantalizing ambrosia through his body.

"Greetings," I interrupted them, my voice as confident and smooth as ever. Instantaneously, all eyes, human or vampire, turned on me.

"Why, if this isn't Marlena Canterbury, Alexis Dors and Louïs Nills. Truly, you were the last people I had hoped to _ever_ meet again."

"What on Earth happened to you?" Alexis asked, her voice barely audible. There were silent tears streaming down her picturesque face. "You were — are missing. It was all over the media. They searched every corner of England for traces of you."

"Y-your eyes," Louïs realized with a scream. "_Dead girl_. Why are your fricken eyes _red_?"

"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" I snapped. "Louïs, you are in _no_ position to curse at me and call me names. Absolutely none!"

"Why?" The words were naught but a fraction of a whisper, but I still heard them. I smirked sadistically in reply as an ideal answer crossed my mind.

Louïs Gabriel Nills, the same boy that had called me ugly, stupid and slow, the same boy that had suggested suicide to me multiple times, the same boy that had hit me repeatedly and left me crying in the school corridor only weeks ago, did not even possess enough time to blink as I threw myself at him with full force.

It wasn't a fair fight.

Louïs' eyes widened once and closed forever as he fell onto the marble flooring, his skull cracking at the impact. Thick, red blood oozed from the wound, sweet and warm and taunting. I did not hesitate for a millisecond.

Consumed entirely by pure hatred and unconditional bloodlust, I sunk my teeth into his neck, moaning in satisfaction as my bully's blood ran down my throat, every bit as pleasing as ambrosia, quieting my thirst. Looking up shortly, I saw the Masters shooting me pleased glances, a bit of happiness visible in Caius's eyes.

I finished quickly — too quickly. I was blind with bloodlust and revenge thoughts, but as I saw Marlena and Alexis sobbingly holding onto each other only meters away from me in shock, I knew that I owed it to myself to drag my revenge out.

"I gather the two of you have figured out by now why _dead girl's eyes are fricken red_?" I demanded politely.

"Vampire" Alexis croaked out. Marlena broke into even heavier sobs, falling out of her friend's embrace and onto her knees.

"_Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name_," she prayed.

"Silence!" I hissed. "Save your breath. There will be no God where you are going."

Within a second, Alexis made her friend company on the cold marble, sobbing her eyes out.

"What happened to you, _DG_?" Marlena whispered terrifyedly. "Were you... always this way...?"

Again, I smirked. "Do you by any chance remember my long-gone older sister?"

"_No_," Alexis whispered in terror. "It cannot be."

"I believe it can," I replied darkly, turning towards the entry where my sister, invisible to human eyes, hid in the shadows. "Amber!"

She was beside within the fraction of a second, presenting me with an angelic, seemingly innocent smile. "Yes, Ruby?"

"It cannot be," the brown-haired girl cried out. "She... she's dead. And... and so are you."

"Now, now," Amber interrupted. "You seem to have confused a few things there. Marlena, is it? A missing person is not nessecarily a dead person. As for death — I must congratulate you on the tragic irony your nickname for my sister obtains, yet it is not entirely accurate. The both of us, and every other person in this room for that matter, may not technically be alive, but we are not dead either."

With a sadistic tone that would have put Vladimir to shame, I concluded her sentence: "We are the undead."

Alexis, pure, animalistic fear in her eyes, stayed silent, gazing off into the distance. It was Marlena that could not supress her feelings and cried out.

"Silence!" I ordered once again. "The next one that cries can join Louïs without further complications."

"To carry on with the story," Amber continued, "You can thank yourselves for this. You hurt my sister, you know that? You girls misused her verbally, and the boy hit her. She considered suicide for some time, do you know that? Because she was so entirely depressed, she went and travelled here on her own to find me."

"I've been _like this_ for a day or two now. And recently, somebody had the genius idea to sort our _special relationship _out. For your information — it is only payback. All the pain, all the panic, the fear; because of you, I've had much worse." Reluctantly, I added: "And you deserve every last bit of it."

"I'm sorry, _dead girl_" Marlena croaked out. "I mean it. If only I could take it all back..."

"Aren't you pathetic," I snarled. "Two long years of inflicting pain on me, no signs of remorse. Ten minutes of me inflicting pain and panic on you, and you wish you could suddenly turn back time. Tragic, the measures needed to make Marlena Canterbury finally apologize."

"And my sister has a name!" Amber scolded her, yelling. "Ruby! R-U-B-Y. Is it that hard?" She sighed. "Did Ruby not explain to your deceased friend less than three minutes ago that none of you are in a position were nicknames are acceptable?" She was screaming at the top of her lungs now, resulting in Marlena cowering behind Alexis. "Did she not demonstrate to you _why_?!"

"Yes," Marlena whispered. "Yes, she did."

But Amber, eyes glistening with fury, had already caught up with her, holding the slender girl up into the air by her neck. Choking, Marlena fought a battle that could only be lost. After only seconds, betraying tears streamed down her face, ruining her mascara; sealing her death sentence.

Alexis had nowhere left to hide as I bolted towards Marlena, breathing in her somewhat overly sweet floral smell. Unlike Louïs, she did not close her eyes.

Marlena Jade Canterbury, the girl that had called my life a joke, the girl that had called every day of my existence a waste, the girl that had misused my trust entirely when we had been forced to shared a room, shrieked when my teeth pierced her skin.

Her blood was not as pure as Louïs's, the taste bitter with a small note of alcohol. I still drank it gladly, hastily, allowing sweet ambrosia to fill me and numb the pain of thirst once more. After several seconds though, Marlena's empty body dropped to the ground — and I was still thirsty.

Alexis's frail from, eyes closed on the ground, involuntarily reminded me of Eve, but I quickly shrugged the thought off. Eve had been innocent; Alexis was the farthest from innocent imaginable.

"I do not see any reason to drag our final contact out any longer, Alexis," I stated. The last human alive shivered, attempting to cover its ears with its hands yet failing due to the uncontrollable shaking its body had subdued to.

"I feel gracious today," I informed her. "Do you have a last wish?"

Unexpectedly, her shaking stopped at my words, and Alexis opened her eyes, sitting up.

"Yes," she whispered, nodding zealously. There was no fear, only determination in her voice. "I want my parents to know that... that I am no more. I don't care what you tell them — I just... I just don't want them to have to live with the cruel uncertainty of never knowing what became of me. Is... is that possible?"

What an honorable last wish, I thought. If only Amber had gathered up enough courage to ask for it...

No, I told myself. It was better this way. I had Amber that way. That was worth leaving my parents, as much as it hurt. That was worth the cruel uncertainty. Worth leaving my parents in pain, never coming back.

I nodded shortly. "Yes, I gather that will be doable."

"Thank you," she whispered.

And as she closed her eyes one last time, she smiled.

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><p><em>Read and Review, as usual.<em>


	26. Hamartia

_Disclaimer_: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight, I don't. My original characters belong to me, and me only.

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><p><strong>Chapter 25 — Hamartia<strong>

"Thank you," I smiled at my sister, gratefully taking her hand in mine as we exited the throne room, leaving the lower guards to clean up our mess. "That... I'm not sure what I would have done without you. Honestly."

"Don't worry yourself about it," she replied happily. "It was rather exciting, to be honest. I might have to continue helping Heidi with her work in the future. I felt so... what would you say nowadays... badass. Calling those morons' parents, lying about some travel scholarship... to be quite honest, I'm still impressed they actually believed me. All of them, if I may add."

I merely shrugged. "I guess that stupidity must have come from somewhere."

Amber laughed. "Indeed. So tell me, Ruby, are you still up for spending some time together?"

"Sure," I agreed. "Where, though?"

"Say, has anyone ever taken you to the gardens before?" Amber asked smilingly.

"I wouldn't say I've been _taken_ there before, no" I said honestly, remembering my last visit to the garden — and its consequences. "I'd like to go there again, though."

"Splendid!" she commented. "Maybe you should quickly go to your chambers and change, though. You've... you've spilled a lot of that blood."

Looking down at myself, I instantly knew that following her proposition would be a good idea. The raven cloak and parts of the black velvet dress underneath were covered almost entirely in a thin coat of crimson, spilled thoughtlessly during my feeding.

"You have a point," I replied. "Shall we meet in the garden in five minutes?"

"Deal," she nodded enthusiastically. "There's something I wanted to talk to Aro about anyway."

With that, I allowed my grip around her hand to loosen, gradually decreasing my force until her hand had disappeared from underneath mine entirely. Without looking back, we walked into opposite directions; Amber back to the golden wing, I into the hawk's.

I had reached Alec's and my room within few seconds, quickly opening the wooden door and slipping inside. I had already known from several meters away, but Alec was still nowhere to be seen. He hadn't been in the throne room, either, I realized with dread.

Where was he?

I made a mental note to ask Amber once I reached the gardens and shrugged it off. With a soul reader as a mate and an ability that allowed her to enter any person's mind but mine, Amber had a tendency to be more than simply well-informed about the happenings of the castle. If anything had occured, she would have told me.

Wouldn't she?

Trying with all my might to push the terrifying thoughts away, I made my way towards the walk-in closet, stepping inside and switching the light on. There were hundreds of black dresses, suits and coats in here — none of which were exactly alike in design, eventhough to strangers, they would have undoubtedly passed as certain copies.

I sighed, stripping out of the soaked clothes and grabbing a random dress and cloak from the shelves. I also put on a new pair of Mary-Jane's, considering that the old one was stained entirely with ruby-colored liquid.

I didn't know what to with the dirty clothing once I had put on my new outift, though. The idea that the Volturi possessed anything even close to a washing machine seemed ridiculous to me — and it wasn't like they could unsuspiciously have several bags of black, middle-age goth-like dresses and modern designer suits washed by a cleaner once a month, either. In the end, I simply allowed the pieces of fabric to fall out of my hands and onto the floor. Maybe the secretary would clean it up.

I risked a quick glance at the art nouveau wall clock and realized that I still had a little over four minutes left before Amber and my's supposed meeting.

Sitting myself down on the modern kingsized bed in the center of the room once again, I noticed a glimpse of color on the minimalistic, black and white covers. Sighing, I reached for it, only to recognize the necklace my mother had presented me with during my last visit. I smiled as I grabbed it with both my hands, holding it closer to me.

A happy version of my sister, twelve to thirteen years old, smiled back at me — or whoever it was that had taken the picture. Her once emerald eyes glistened with kindness and love, dark circles underneath. Amber's imperfect teeth showed in the impulsive smile. Dressed in a dark blue sweater, her dark brown, messy hair fell a little further than her shoulders.

I wondered what part I had played on this photograph. Had Amber embraced me? Had I quietly sat next to my sister, looking up at her, hoping for a song or bedtime story? Had I smiled back at her, only that her smile had been directed towards the camera? The only certain thing seemed that I had been somewhere on the picture. Where exactly though seemed to be one of the few details the venom had ridded my memory though.

But most importantly of all, I wondered who Amber had smiled at. Dad? Mom? One of Mom's countless friends, or one of Dad's colleagues?

And then, entirely out of the blue, the strangest thing happened — sole daysago I had thought of my parents apathetically, had even be willing to trade in their pain for my hope. But now, as the thought of younger versions of my Mom and Dad entered my mind, sneaking into my room with a camera to capture the darling moment of Amber and me and turn it immortal, a feeling of loss and panic, unlike anything I had ever felt before, hit me.

I remembered the worried texts I had seen from them when I had still been seated on Luzi's backseat, one of the Konner twins to either of my sides — Dad's controlled feeling of unease, combined with the certainty that I would never betray his trust; Mom's immediate worry and anxiety. And I remembered Alexis' words, spoken less than an hour ago, of the attention my disappearance had received on national media.

They would never find me, I thought. I would be just another Amber, only that this time, they would feel truly responsible.

It was a funny thing how much could change in a short amount of time. One moment, you send your daughter away to your ex-husband, the next she has disappeared. One moment, you hear the faraway ringing of a phone in the distance, the next you are scarred for life. One moment, you talk you to your sister, the next you are unconsciously being carried away from the safety of a castle.

All it takes is one, short moment and a sufficient amount of naïvity to take life as you know it and turn it into a living hell.

I stood up, walking towards the golden Renaissance mirror near the door. Instantly, half-empty, half-satisfied crimson eyes stared back at me. My hair was a mess, but I could not be bothered to readjust it. A single dried drop of ruby liquid decorated my right chin. Quickly wiping it off, I gave myself one final lookover and made for the gardens.

By the time I had remembered the directions and followed them entirely towards their destination, Amber was already waiting for me in the gardens, sitting in the shade of a big tree with almost invisibly tiny white petal-like leaves. She waved me towards her once she saw me, and I wordlessly followed her invitation.

"It's a cherry blossom tree," Amber said once I had sat down to her left. "They represent beauty and fragility of life in Japan. It blooms only once a year and only for a very short time, but when it does, the entire garden is filled with pink blossoms. Aro had it imported here for me on our wedding day."

"It's very pretty," I commented dreamily, staring up at the tree. "And a very thoughtful present."

"Isn't it?" she beamed. "Sadly, it already bloomed at the end of April this year. But don't worry, you'll get to enjoy its full beauty more than enough in the not-too-distant future."

"_Nihil obstat _(nothing is in the way)," I agreed, earning myself a smile for my latin. "Say, do you possibly have any idea what happened to Alec? I haven't seen him ever since Caius ordered him away, and he was neither at the feeding nor in our chambers when I returned."

"He went outside the castle grounds to feed when he was ordered away," she replied after a second of intense thought. "And the last I saw him was when he was discussing something with the brothers shortly before your feeding. I don't know what happened after, though."

"Thanks, I guess," I shrugged. "I've been on edge ever since he disappeared."

Amber smiled kindly. "Of course you are, he is your mate after all," she said. "Oh! Hello there, Jane."

"My greetings," said female vampire announced her appearance. "Am I disturbing anything?"

"I was just talking with Ruby, actually" Amber mentioned. "So really-"

"Never mind her," I interrupted my sister, feeling terribly reminded of my own loneliness at the sight of the blonde vampire girl. "Why don't you sit with us? If you can stand me, that is."

"Thank you," Jane thanked me, gratefulness in her eyes. "And I gladly will." Within the blink of an eye, she sat herself next to Amber. My sister shot me a look of both annoyance and positive surprise, but kept quiet.

"I couldn't overhelp you two mentioning Alec," Jane began. "He sends you his love and apologies, Ruby. Apparently there is some unexpected commotion in the throne room that needs to be taken care of immediately."

"What kind of commotion?" Amber demanded interestedly, giving Jane her full attention. "Another suicidal vampire?"

"Maybe they've found a replacement for Adrianna," I suggested.

She shook her head. "Some humans showed up at the reception during the feeding," she explained. "They demanded to '_meet the boss_'. Adrianna called for me when she heard the screams die down and I accompanied them to the throne room. Another bunch of journalists, if you ask me."

"Did you ask them what they wanted to meet the Masters for?" I asked.

"They wouldn't tell me," Jane said. "The secretary told me she'd heard some parts of their whispered conversation before I showed up, though. Something of the news, a credit card and mobile phone tracking."

"Definetely journalists," Amber agreed. "They go in and trust in their electronic devices being tracked in case they never leave again."

"Sounds entirely pointless to me," I contributed. "Why would anybody risk their life for some stupid article?"

"Don't ask me," my sister chimed in, closing her eyes and tuning off — probably investigating wether these suicidal humans really were journalists.

"Humans tend to strive for appreciation and fame, I guess, what with their days being numbered," Jane said. "And some go to insane lengths to achieve that. Not that I have a problem with it," she added thoughtfully. "I enjoy surprise snacks."

I laughed, partly surprised by her honesty, partly out of politeness. If only I had known what horrors would unfold within the following seconds, though, maybe I would have taken myself the time for a final heartfelt, all-fulfilling laugh.

I didn't. During my last oblivious moments, I sat in the shade of my sister's cherry blossom tree, forcedly laughing at her friend's brutal honesty, feeling somewhat anxious as, at Amber's words, the panic from earlier returned in unknown magnitude.

"_F-ck_," she whispered as her eyes shot open, threatening to drop out of their sockets in terror. Instantly, she shot up. "Ruby, you need to come with me _right now._"

But I merely stared at her, too shocked at her sudden outburst to move.

"Now!" Amber screamed. "For f-ck's sake, Ruby! Stand up_!_"

I hastily followed her orders, shooting Jane a confused look. "What's gotten into you?" I asked.

My sister visibly tensed at this, growling and hissing aggressively at me while fervently and violently turning towards the exit and back to me. To say I was scared would be the understatement of the century.

"_Wake up_, Ruby!" she yelled at the loudest her voice would allow her.

"What do you mean?" I managed to croak out.

Amber did not answer, instead enragedly grabbing me by my right arm and bolting off towards the throne room in constant curses. Surprised by her sudden break of character, I struggled to keep up with her pace, but did not dare to complain.

Halfway through the corridors, strangely familiar smells hit me for the second time within a day, only that this time my instincts told me that this time, anything but a good outcome was to be expected.

Jane following shortly behind the two of us, we had reached the heavy wooden doors to the throne room in record breaking speed, only to find it guarded by two extremely muscular guards I believed to be named Afton and Santiago. We had not even come to a definite halt before we could hear the seemingly impossible conversation that was taking place on the other side.

_"We know that she is here," a somehow familiar masculine voice explained. "Please, we have been worrying sick for the last one and a half weeks. If we could only see her..."_

"Mistress," Santiago and Afton greeted my sister synchronically. "We apologize, but we have been specifically ordered not to allow anybody into the throne room."

_"You are mistaken if you think you know this," a voice I instantly identified as Caius' snarled. "You are equally as mistaken if you believe you will remeet anything in this room but oblivion."_

"YOU WILL ALLOW ME IN THIS INSTANT!" Amber hissed screamingly. "Follow my orders or I will make you and order Jane to have her fun with you pathetic excuses of vampires after!"

_"A-... Am-...," a female voice whispered, quickly catching herself. "I demand to see them!" She yelled desperately._

"I'm afraid we cannot do that," Santiago told us insecurily.

_"Alec, Felix," Aro's voice ordered coldly. A horrified female's scream was audible._

Determinedly, my sister's eyes closed as slowly, the guards' gazes turning empty and meaningless.

_"Please...!" the woman cried out in pure desperation as two pairs of feet walked over to the man, shortly waiting in silence as my mate took a deep breath._

Suddenly hasty, the manipulated guards stepped to the sides, unwillingly allowing us to procede.

And procede we did.

Letting go of my arm, Amber sprinted forward, throwing open the heavy door as if it was made of feathers. Jane and I ran after her, and my eyes widened in pure and cold disbelief as they took in the garstly sight before us.

There, lying in the ruby-colored mess that had remained from my feeding, lay two figures — pale, tired and unhealthy-looking. A short-haired brunette whose once luscious locks were now taken over entirely by uneven streaks of gray stood frozenly only meters before us, wearing an ensemble of black and white along with the pearl necklace I had bought her for her fourtieth birthday. Her theoretically beautiful face was filled with worry and tears.

"_Mom_," I whispered horrifyedly.

But I did not have enough time to say anymore. In the exact middle of the room, lying in the exact spot where I had killed Louïs less than ten minutes ago, Felix and Alec flanking him from both sides, was my father.

"Dears," Aro interrupted my observations from the other end of the room, standing up. "This is truly the _most_ unfortunate time to interrupt."

"You!" Amber snarled, pointing at her mate. "How dare you?! We had a deal! If any of my family members were to show up here, they were to be left alone!" Angrily, she glared at her entire, suddenly complete family. "This is **not** leaving them alone!"

"Amber," Dad smiled wearily from in between the two vampires. "And Ruby, too. We found you."

"Dad," I smiled back at him. "I've missed you so much." I risked another glance towards him, seeing my bold father almost enchantedly stare at Amber.

"You were right," he whispered, his words directed towards me. "You were right all along, _cherry_."

"Dad, I-"

But I did not continue as I noticed a little, crucial detail — a black, misty detail coming from Alec's palms.

"_NO_!" I yelled as I instantly understood the meaning of his action. "Alec, _stop_!"

"Alec, _continue_" Aro ordered, turning towards his mate when he had finished wording his demand.

"Amber, your parents have an entire team of cameramen and reporters that are on their way to meet them for an interview after this visit right this instance. And they know," he added. "Having chosen their timing the worst possible way, they came before there was even a chance to clean up yours and your sister's mess. We cannot be as careless as to allow them to leave."

"Alec," I whispered desperately, but it was too late. My mate had made his decision, and soon the black mist had surrounded my father entirely.

"Don't!" I yelled. "Have mercy on them! I knew too and I was allowed to leave!"

"Yes," Caius admitted. "But you did not have an entire movie team in tow. And might I just remember you what chaos this decision caused? We could have saved ourselves much trouble had we dealt with you right away."

"Please!" I screamed regardlessly, ignoring his flawless logic. "You can't just-"

A loud snap interrupted my trance, and I terrifyedly turned towards the sound. All time stood still as there, in the middle of the room, Felix hovered over my father's neck. Dread filling me instantly. He had snapped it.

"_YOU MONSTERS!_" I cried out, running towards my father's body while Amber consoled Mom. Both Felix and Alec dropped Dad's corpse as I ran towards him, and I quickly picked him up and cradled him in my arms, in vain checking for any vital signs. Shivering with rage and panic from head to toe, I closed his eyes, giving him one last, shaky kiss on his now deadly cold forehead.

"How could you...?" I whispered, broken, staring at Alec. "How could you do this to me...?"

"I... I'm sorry," he whispered back, and from his tone of voice I knew he meant it. Still, I vanished towards my mother when he made to embrace me consolingly.

"Mom," Amber said. "This is going to be okay. You must believe me."

"Easily said," she smiled, tears rolling down her face. "You can't possibly imagine my relief that you are alive and well."

Acting on instinct, I fell into my mother's loving arms at her words, closing my eyes.

"I'm sorry, Mommy," I said. "I'm so sorry, too."

Amber followed my example after several milliseconds of doubt. For a few, peaceful seconds, it was as if the last eight years had been naught but a bad dream — and the three of us were at home in London, lying on the couch, hugging each other.

Neither of us had heard the order until it was too late.

Demetri and Afton took us by surprise as they shoved one of us each out of the way. Both Amber and I mindlessly screamed, and Amber was already re-closing her eyes to attack, but it was already too late. A heartbreaking, high-pitched scream was audible as they snapped her neck, allowing her body to drop onto the floor after.

Frozen in blind disbelief, Amber and I stared into each other's eyes.

Silence.

Complete, utter silence.

All sounds died down.

Nobody moved.

Sometimes, I thought, it only takes one moment.

And as my mate broke the silence by running towards me and wrapping his priorly loving, now cold and numb arms around my shivering, shaking self, my parents' lifeless bodies lying in the blood I had spilled before me, guilt replacing all other present emotions, I realized once and for all that believing I would find happiness with my sister was a lie — I would always be the misfit, the _dead girl_, the eternally foolish bird.

And now, once and for all, my wings had been broken.

A weary smile formed on my lips, my eyes staring off into the void as I remembered Bella's tale of her trip to Volterra. Before I could object, an unorthodox, unwanted thought came to me; giving me hope.

Breaking free from Alec's arms, I threw off my cloak and grabbed his hand, dragging him with me as I made my way towards the exit, Amber and Jane on our heels.

**.oOXOo.**

I don't know why I decided to tell you this story. This ridiculously dramatic, pain inducing story that, sadly, is mine. The story of a girl who only wanted to find what had been violently taken from her, and in the end lost it all to her flaws. The story of how I, Ruby Brown, turned out to be the very thing I detested most — the dead girl.

Maybe there is no reason. For all I know, if or if not there is one is irrelevant. What is relevant, however, is what you make of this. What you carry away from this, except of a headache and the burning desire to read a good, old sappy romance where, in the end, the heroine rides off happily into the sunset.

I may only exist in your head, but somewhere along my tragic story, I obviously hit a nerve, didn't I? Why else would you still be here, reading this otherwise? Your argument that we are not alike, which you will later use to calm yourself, is inane.

And the two of us are more alike than you would like to think.

Maybe the monsters of my story do not exist in real life. Maybe these specific vampires cannot hurt you. But your monsters can. And they can destroy you, just the way they have just done. Why else would you be feeling this uneasy feeling in your stomach now?

I told you this was not a happy story. I did warn you.

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><p><em>Read and Review.<em>


	27. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Commotion commenced instantaneously as the slim figures sprinted through the corridors, pale hand in pale hand, united in insufferable guilt and sudden, irrevocable epiphany. Quickly risking a glance behind itself, the creature to the left, a pained seeming boy, angelic, sophisticated face framed by a wall of messed-up brown hair, could not believe its eyes, disbelief evident in its bright crimson orbs.

Behind the two blackly cloaked creatures, both of which female, which had followed the pair from the very first millisecond, a half dozen of other familiar beings were rapidly gaining speed.

The boy hastily turned back around towards his companion, presenting the marginally older looking girl at his side with a worried glance. But the girl remained calm, dauntless determination in her eyes. Confidence radiated off her. A weary smile consumed her full lips. And while she remained silent, the boy had no trouble in understanding the urgent question in her eyes, hidden behind the determination.

_Will you stay by my side?_

Eyes widening in both agreement and disbelief, he finally understood the plans of the girl, his mate, his reason to exist. For a moment, he allowed the fear to take him. Was he really ready for this? What would happen to them? And, most importantly: would it hurt?

Then, pushing the fear away and replacing it with the need to be with and do whatever it took for the young girl whose entire world had just changed for the inexplicable worse, he nodded.

_Always_.

And as the girl smiled once more, loosening the grip on his hand, he knew that he would be strong for her.

Their names were being called from behind them, along with warnings and desperate screams. They knew what they were about to do. Sisters, superiors, friends fought an already lost battle, trying to make them change their ways — but it was as if they were far away, above the surface, while the couple was already underwater, close to drowning, unable to helped yet pleased about the outcome.

The two figures and their pursuers before long sped past a surprised secretary, who was able to let out a sound of shock before cautiously leaving her place behind the desk and shooting the congegration confused glances. Within the blink of an eye, her neck was snapped and her lifeless body fell to the ground. The mahogany king hissed a few deprecative words at the corpse, then resumed his earlier position in the crowd, fury written in bold letters onto his face.

And then, just as the king's wife had managed to calm him by the simple touch of a hand, a ray of light appeared at the bottom of a large heavy wooden door, located at the very end of the neverending hallway.

The girl that had just comforted her love jumped forward, laying her slender arms around her sister's waist. _Don't do this_, she whispered into the doomed girl's ear, a pleading tone to her voice. _Together, we can get through it._

For a millisecond, the girl halted, rethinking her decision. But not for one instant longer.

_I'm sorry for coming back_, she whispered.

Then, with a loud noise, the boy threw open the door.

Instinctively, all vampires except of the couple and the girl's sister ran into the nearby shadows, hiding themselves from the sunlight. The three remaining figures stood shortly before the edge. The sisters shared one, last meaningful glance. The boy held out his hand towards his mate, waiting patiently.

Before anybody could react, the protective arms around the girl came undone.

_Don't_, the sister pleaded, but her words remained unheard. She had acted on impulse, remembering the words she had once stumbled upon in her husband's manuscripts:

If you love something, set them free. If it comes back, its yours; if it doesn't, it never was.

And now she had nothing left to do but pray that her sister would redecide.

"Together?" the boy asked.

The girl nodded, readily accepting his hand. "Together."

And as they ran out into the broad daylight hand in hand, casting ruby and amber colored rays of light out into the open, feeling the cold feeling of unforgiving stone arms around their necks, they heard the cracking sound of their own bodies breaking apart, and they closed their eyes.

And they let go.

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><p><strong><em>I sincerely apologize for all the annoying 'Read and Review's. I just didn't want to somehow influence your thoughts on the story, while still wanting to encourage you to tell me your thoughts.<em>**

**_Now, if you enjoyed my story, please leave me behind some feedback. I would be eternally grateful._**

**_I hope that this story meant as much to you as it did to me. It is one of my favorites, and however often I read it, it never bores me. Also, I just feel like Ruby is making amazing character development over the course of it... but alas, I will not influence your opinion any further._**

**_Live a good life. _**

**_yours sincerely,_**

**_DramaDramaDrama_**


	28. Non-Canon Awards '16, please read! :)

Hi there, and thanks for taking the time to read this. I promise I won't take long.

Two years ago I have started writing this story and since then I have been floored and very grateful for all your positive feedback and your patience in me and my updating-skills. This story has changed me and my life, and I hope that to some extent, even though it is just fan fiction, I hope it has had a positive influence on yours, too.

Recently, The Story of Ruby Brown has surprisingly been nominated for a Non-Canon Award in the Best Volturi/OC category, and even though I have long given up on the Twilight fandom and this story has been completed for about one and a half years now, I would be immensely thankful if you could spare a few seconds and vote for this story. It's my main work so far and the time and effort I have put into it is really indescribable.

On another note, if you have read my one-shot Peripety, I would be just as grateful if you would be willing to vote for it in the Best One-Shot category.

forms/d/1S7nRGojL0V8oVbPGD1jaS3NiQWaaYrQ0qB2wlmq6yhI /viewform (without the gaps)

...or just go thenoncanonawards. wordpress .com

Thank you in advance!

Yours,

Hannah


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